Cool Things about your Ragdoll
History
Characteristics
Appearance
Care
Myths
Ragdolls vs. RagaMuffins
CFA
Ragdoll Profile
There has probably never been another cat breed surrounded by controversy as much as the Ragdoll! Ann Baker, who first started breeding Ragdolls, started many of these claims and unfortunately even today some cat books and articles offer them as the truth. Ragdolls have even been tested in a university to prove that they are normal cats.
Ragdolls have a high resistance to pain.
Ragdolls feel as much pain as any other cat. Anyone who has stepped on a Ragdollīs tail can tell you that!
Ragdolls do not feel fear.
Ragdolls are trusting, placid cats who donīt get alarmed as easily as cats normally do, but they are not stupid!
Ragdolls
donīt have the normal cat instincts, like hunting.
Ragdolls have the same instincts as other cats, but they may be a bit clumsy so they usually donīt make good mousers.
Ragdolls have deformed bones/muscles.
Ragdollsī ability to relax their muscles when held has sometimes made people think that there is something physically wrong with them. This has proven to be false.
Ragdolls canīt defend themselves.
Ragdolls have claws like any other cats. How much they really use them, is individual. In general Ragdolls do defend themselves if they have to, but they usually donīt unless itīs really necessary.
Ragdolls are placid because they arenīt very smart.
Ragdolls are known to be quick learners, so this isnīt true.
Ragdolls are so placid that they donīt do anything.
This is of course individual. Some Ragdolls are very quiet, some very playful. In general Ragdolls are known for being playful, curious cats who love to take part of everything that happens in the house --not phlegmatic!
Ragdolls
are suitable pets for those who are allergic to cats.
Because Ragdolls lack undercoat and shed little, it is sometimes claimed that they donīt cause allergic reactions. It however isnīt the hair which causes allergy, but the dander. Therefore Ragdolls are just as bad to people with an allergy as any other breed.
Ragdolls are genetically altered.
This claim was first made by Ann Baker. Thereīs no truth behind it; no such technology existed in the 60īs when Ragdoll breeding begun.
Ragdolls were created by mating a white Persian/Angora with a Birman and Burmese.
Ragdolls were bred from street cats, and pedigree cats were hardly used in creating them. The "Persian/Angora" was Josephine, who was an ordinary long-haired feral cat with an unknown background. It is however possible that Ann Baker, being a Persian breeder, later used Persian in her Ragdoll breeding programme. The "Burmese" was Buckwheat, Josephineīs kitten that looked like a Burmese but probably had no Burmese blood at all. The "Birman" was Daddy Warbucks, another Josephineīs kitten with an unkown sire. Daddy Warbucks looked much like a Birman, but we know for sure that Birman has never been used in breeding Ragdolls. The proof of this is genetic: the mitted pattern gene in the Ragdoll is not the same as the gene responsible for the Birmanīs pattern. The colourpoint gene probably came from a Siamese or a Colorpoint Persian that was allowed to go outside and mated with the street cats in the area. The long coat and white "mitts", not being rare in ordinary street cats, came from somewhere else.
