The story of the Ragdolls began with Ann Baker who lived in California back in the 1960’s. There have been many contradictory stories about Ms. Baker.
It appears that a neighbor of Ann’s had a white Angora cat called Josephine. Apparently Josephine was hit by a car and her owners found Josephine badly injured with head injuries. Ann’s neighbors worked at a university and took Josephine there, where she was nursed back to health.
They say that once nursed back to health Josephine recovered with no apparent injury.
Prior to the accident Josephine had produced many litters of kittens and when she returned home she resumed her productivity. Her owners expected her to produce the usual type of feral kittens, however, something went wrong. Josephine had been mated with both Birman and Burmese males. The litter that resulted from this mating were completely different to previous litters.
Ann noticed the change in these kittens temperament. Instead of them being quite wild they were completely the opposite. They were very loving, playful and relaxed and seemed to love getting all the attention. Josephine’s owners didn’t want the kittens and were happy to give them to Ann.
This is the main story that has been generated to present day and although there are many theories as to how an accident suffered by Josephine could alter her offspring at a genetic level, it is more plausible to assume that this mating she originally had, affected the breed over the future years and therefore we now have the Ragdoll Cat known for its good coat quality, size, striking appearance and good temperament.
Ragdoll owners are blessed to have a cat with a non-fighting disposition, a low pain threshold, non-matting fur, huge size and last but no least a Beautiful Nature.
