What is a Ragdoll?

A Ragdoll is a breed of cat that began about 30 years ago in Riverside, California, with the help of a woman named Ann Baker. Ann recognized something very special about her neighbors’ cats, and decided to further them and ‘create’ her own breed, the IRCA Ragdoll.

Josephine was a white Angora type feral cat that Ms. Bakers neighbors fed and cared for. Josephine was a free roaming cat so the sires to her offspring are unknown. There was something very special in Josephines’ kittens that had a ‘Magic’ to them. They were extremely affectionate, went limp when held, exceptionally large cats that even though were long haired, did not have matts. Ms. Baker noticed these endearing qualities and took some of her kittens and began a breeding program. One of the first boys was named ‘Daddy Warbucks’, he was a seal colorpoint with white mittens, somewhat resembling the ‘Sacred Cat of Burma’, but he also had a white diamond blaze on his forehead, and a white tail tip. In the beginning there was a melting pot of colors and patterns, but Ann focused on what she liked, the colorpoints with mittens, blazes, and white tail tips.

Ms. Baker was a bit eccentric and did not believe in the organizations that registered and promoted cats in the Cat Fancy, so she began her own organization called IRCA. The IRCA would only register the cats bred in the in the programs under Ms. Bakers organization.

After the breed had begun, a young couple, Mr., and Mrs. Denny Dayton along with a handful of other breeders recognized the wonderful qualities in Ms. Bakers’ Ragdolls, but realized the breed would not go very far without being introduced into the traditional cat fancy, so they broke away from Ms. Bakers’ (IRCA) organization and began breeding their Ragdolls and campaigning to get them accepted into the registering bodies. Today the Ragdolls are accepted for registration and championship status in all the organizations, CFA has just recently accepted our Bicolor pattern into champion status.

For the past 30 years we have had two factions of Ragdoll breeders. The ones that have descended from Ann Baker have bred the IRCA Ragdoll and the ones that descended from the Daytons are the Ragdolls registered in all the traditional organizations. They are TICA, CFA, ACFA, CFF etc. This all has caused much confusion, but once the history is explained, it can be understood that the two factions are really quite similar in what they want to accomplish in their Ragdolls. They share the same ancestry.

In 1993 a large group of IRCA Ragdoll breeders decided to break away from Ann Bakers organization. She was getting up in age, and had many health problems. They feared if something happened to Ann, the IRCA organization would be gone. Because they all had contracts stating they could not call their cats Ragdolls if they broke away from Ms. Bakers’ organization, they decided to rename their cats Ragamuffins. This caused quite a stir in the Ragdoll community in the beginning. The Ragamuffins have the same ‘look’ and special qualities that the traditional Ragdolls have. They also come in the same colorpoint colors and patterns that the Ragdolls do, and with the name Ragamuffin, so close to that of the Ragdoll, there was quite a lot of confusion regarding these two breeds. There are important differences though. Ragamuffins come in several other colors and patterns than the Ragdoll does and their breeders are focusing on a different ‘head’ type, and for several years now they have been bred within a different gene pool than traditional Ragdolls. The Ragamuffin breeders are campaigning the showhalls to be recognized as their own breed. If we can get past some of the initial confusion and see that these are indeed two separate breeds, we can appreciate both for what is truly special about them.

What really matters to most of us is that by definition a Ragdoll cat is a large, floppy, loving cat with the special ‘magic’ that the original cats had. It is also very important that they are healthy and raised in a loving environment. It is also important that they are accepted and registered and showable in all the cat registering bodies and taken seriously by the cat fancy with a history and track record of being a true and healthy breed. A Ragdoll is a blue eyed colorpoint cat. Period.