Cool Things about your Ragdoll
History
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Myths
Ragdolls vs. RagaMuffins
CFA
Ragdoll Profile
RagaMuffins are descendants of Josephine like Ragdolls (look the history section for details). When Ann Baker begun her Ragdoll breeding programme, she also got kittens that didnīt have the Ragdoll colors and patterns. These kittens she registered as "Miracle Ragdolls" and continued to use them on breeding. Other breeders eventually also started to breed for other colors and patterns. When some of the breeders left Ann Bakerīs breeding programme to get Ragdolls accepted by the major cat associations, they took with them only the four colors and three patterns that are accepted in Ragdolls today. The IRCA breeders continued to breed both Ragdolls and Miracle Ragdolls.
IRCA Ragdolls continued to breed Ragdolls outside the traditional cat fancy for over twenty years, before in 1994 another group of breeders left IRCA. However these breeders changed the name of their breed from Ragdoll to RagaMuffin, because Ann Baker still held the Ragdoll trademark and they had signed a contract, which stated that if they didnīt abide the IRCA rules, they couldnīt sell their cats as Ragdolls.
The relationship between the Ragdoll and RagaMuffin breeders has never been particularly warm. The Ragdoll breeders sometimes feel that the RagaMuffin breeders are simply trying to ride on the Ragdollīs fame by selling "Ragdolls in different colors". The RagaMuffin breeders think that the other colors and patterns are worthy of preserving as well. Sometimes the claims of the two groups are in completely contradiction with each other. The Ragdoll cat breed was, according to Ann Baker, bred from three cats only. It is completely possible that all the traditional colors and patterns of the Ragdoll descemt from these cats, however it is impossible that RagaMuffins with all their possible colors and patterns could exist without heavy crossbreeding. Some Ragdoll breeders claim that Ann Baker started to breed a lot outside of the Ragdoll lines, which was one of the reasons why breeders felt that they needed to break out of their contract. RagaMuffin breeders however often claim, that Ragdolls were originally bred in all colors and the pointed pattern came later (this part is untrue, we know that Daddy Warbucks, one of the three founding cats, was pointed). Ann Baker also often called the mitted as the "true Ragdoll look", which certainly does suggest that Ann Baker originally intended the Ragdoll breed to be mitted. I suspect that she would have dropped the colorpoint and bicolor patterns as well, unless they werenīt necessary to breed mitteds.
So what exactly are the differences between Ragdolls and RagaMuffins? There are not many. Both are bred for their personality and both have the tendency to go limp when held. RagaMuffins have a slight cranial doming and rounded scull between the ears, while Ragdolls have a flat plane between the ears. RagaMuffins have walnut shaped eyes while Ragdoll calls for oval shaped eyes. RagaMuffins have a bit shorter and thicker coats, Ragdolls have silky, medium long coat. The most obvious difference is that RagaMuffins are recognized in all colors and patterns. For the buyer, the biggest difference hovewer is that the RagaMuffin is much more rare than the Ragdoll, and it is still recognized by a very few cat associations. Very few RagaMuffins exist outside USA.
Right now RagaMuffin breeders are trying to change the look of the breed to make it distinguishable from the Ragdoll. The aim is a more rounder, heavier boned cat with a shorter nose. Once the RagaMuffin has a clearly different appearance from the Ragdoll, the breed will probably get more recognition in the cat fancy.
