About Ragdolls

The Ragdoll is a breed whose origins are surrounded by controversy and tall tales. They are a relatively new breed started in the 1960’s. Ragdolls are known for their large size, loving and affectionate temperament, long non-matting coats, serene dispositions, striking appearance, blue eyes, and the tendency to relax in a person’s arms like a rag doll (hence the name). Ragdolls are perfect for people who thought (as we did) that only a dog could love them back so completely. Ann Baker’s client entrance attached to her home with her cattery name. The Ragdoll breed was first created by a woman breeding black Persians and Apple headed lilac Balinese cats named Ann Baker in Riverside, California in the 1960’s. Her cattery was named ‘Raggedy Ann’. The story of the mother of all Ragdolls is a mystical one that includes both the famous first cat, ‘Josephine’ and her breeders, Ann Baker. The true story proves that fact is stranger than fiction. According to various stories, the foundation cat, Josephine, produced unremarkable kittens until she was struck by a car in the early 1960s. After her recovery, all of her subsequent litters produced kittens that displayed characteristics that are today referred to as Ragdoll traits. The more detailed story is that ‘Josephine’ just happened to live next door to Ann Baker. The neighbors who claimed ownership of Josephine were the Pennel’s. Ann Baker and other neighbors noticed that Josephine’s litters of kittens ‘changed’ after she survived the almost fatal car accident, which required time in a hospital and which left her missing an eye. Josephine was rescued by an employee of the vet hospital after finding her wounded by the side of the street. Josie was nursed back to health by the vet hospital employee’s at the facility she recuperated in. For some reason the cat was returned to the Pennel’s, and Ms. Baker decided she had to have some of the subsequent kittens from ‘Josie’. At first, Ms. Baker kept two males from two different feral tom sires, even though these boys did not have a pedigreed past. Supposed picture of Josephine with some of the kittens used later, possibly her male ‘Blackie’. After the car accident Josephine had mated on her own with a feral black and white mitted long-haired tom and produced a solid black male kitten that Ann Baker kept as a stud named “Blackie”. Another unplanned litter by Josephine followed, sired by a solid brown long-haired tom. This tryst produced a seal mitted male named “Daddy Warbucks”. What Ann clearly states is that “Blackie” and “Daddy Warbucks” are both sons of Josephine, but with different sires who were unknown and undocumented. Ann Baker created her own registry for Ragdolls in 1971 called the International Ragdoll Cat Association (IRCA). In the IRCA booklet it would appear to indicate that Blackie’s father was a black cat from the East, that appeared more Persian than Burmese. During detailed questioning, Ann confirmed that no-one had ever seen the father of Daddy Warbucks, and he was the only kitten in that particular litter of Josephine’s. This being so, makes it difficult to take the origins of the breed further. Ann Baker in her later years with one of her Ragdolls. Many write-ups of the history of Ragdolls incorrectly state that Daddy Warbucks was of Birman descent. He did have front mittens similar to Birman cats. However, while Daddy Warbucks may have looked Birman, he certainly wasn’t a Birman. The Ragdoll’s white spotting gene is definitely not the same as in the Birman breed. This has also been confirmed by TICA’s genetics committee chairperson, Dr. Solveig Pflueger, M.D., Ph.D Known picture of Daddy Warbucks, a seal mitted with blaze. Even though ‘Blackie’ and “Daddy Warbucks” were Josephine’s sons, Ann Baker bred them back to Josephine, and then bred daughter’s from those matings back to their fathers. This is referred as in-line breeding, and some Ragdoll breeders have relied on it. This type of inbreeding can result in healthy offspring, but some genetic abnormalities are usually produced. Ann Baker documented that she believed seven generation of females needed to be bred back to their original sire’s. Ann Baker kept control of the Ragdoll breed by making it into a franchise operation, where she was paid a royalty fee for all kittens that were sold, and she was also paid for the cats she had sold as breeders. Here is a picture of the two family tree’s that Ann Baker started.