Ragdoll History

The Ragdoll is a relatively new breed of cat which was first bred by a lady called Ann Baker in California, USA in the1960's. At that time and the founding queen of the Ragdoll breed was a non-pedigree Angora-type female called Josephine who was owned by one of Ann Baker's neighbours.

Josephine with kittens

Josephine produced frequent litters of kittens which were all fairly wild until at some stage she was severely injured by a car and after her recovery it was noted that the kittens she produced were quite different in that they seemed to crave human attention and were very playful, loving and relaxed. This aroused Ann's interest and she started to acquire some of Josephine's kittens. The first of these was a black self female called Buckwheat who is described as being similar to a Burmese but thick-furred.

Buckwheat with Kyoto and Tiki

Also at this time Ann had been borrowing one of Josephine's older sons to sire progeny in her black Persian breeding programme. He had the appearance of a black/brown Persian and she named him Blackie. He was the father of Buckwheat and on one of her visits to borrow Blackie she saw his brother who Ann described as being most impressive and having the appearance of the Sacred Cat of Burma (the Birman breed). She was most taken with this cat and named him Raggedy Ann Daddy Warbucks.

Daddy Warbucks

By mating Daddy Warbucks and Buckwheat Ann could obtain Tiki and Kyoto.

Ann Baker with Kyoto and Kookie Tu

Ann was also able to obtain another daughter of Josephine's and Daddy Warbucks. This one had a lot of white on her and was in essence a badly marked bicolour. Ann called her Raggedy Ann Fugianna.

Ann Baker with Fugianna

Kookie, Toy Sue, Kookie Tu

Unfortunately when Josephine had a litter of kittens she was very protective of them and at some stage when she was defending her latest litter from the family dog the owner's husband decided that enough was enough and had Josephine and the kittens “destroyed”.

In 1969 a new breeder husband and wife team (Laura and Denny Dayton) bought their first breeding pair from Ann and realized the breed had to be shown and accepted by the various associations in the fancy. Their cattery was named "Blossom-Time". In order to promote these cats, he founded the Ragdoll Society which later became the RFC and is known today as the RFCI (Ragdoll Fanciers Club International) in February of 1975.

Blossom-Time, Pip, Floppy, Happy

Laura and Denny Dayton with Floppy and Loveable

Laura holding Loveable, Phil, Floppy

First Ragdoll Cats

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