The origin of the Ragdoll is believed to date from around the early 1960’s with a loving white longhaired cat of gentle disposition and mixed ancestry named Josephine. This notable cat carried the genes for producing pointed markings.Josephine was a free roaming Angora-like cat that bred at will and was very lucky to have survived a bad accident. Despite the accident, Josephine continued to give birth to happy healthy kittens, which greatly impressed the people they came into contact with. They soon discovered that the kittens grew to be very sturdy, and had a “remarkably relaxed disposition”, a true loving nature, beautiful blue eyes and long, non-matting fur.
Josephine’s owner, California breeder Ann Baker, realised that Josephine’s kittens were somewhat special and selected those from which she could produce the look she wished to preserve for the breeding programme that was developing in her mind. The kittens with the desired traits were therefore retained and carefully line bred to keep the strain pure and to fix the type standard for the emerging “Ragdoll” breed. This somewhat eccentric and entrepreneurial breeder even took out a patent on the new breed so that other breeders wishing to breed from her lines, had to do so under licence by paying a royalty fee for every kitten produced and sold.
The name “Ragdoll” came about because of what appeared to be the cat’s unique ability to relax like a child’s toy rag doll. Today, ALL Ragdolls must be descendents of Josephine and her progeny and over the years no other strain of Persian, Burmese or Birman was allowed to be reintroduced into the lines. However that did not always remain the case, with a few breeders introducing an outcross to bring new colour varieties to the breed. Although there is variation in pattern, the breed is renown for its uniformity of disposition.
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