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special thanks goes to Mady Janssens, Calaquendi's Dolls cattery,
Belgium,
who contributed with some pictures of her beautiful cats! |
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Calaquendi's Dolls Meixiu & Ferchil
Breeder: Mady Janssens,
Calaquendi's Dolls cattery, Wuustwezel, Belgium |
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How did the Ragdoll get its name?
The name was taken from the Rag-Dolls, which go
limp, and because the breed is very docile, relaxed and goes limp
when picked up. They also sleep completely relaxed lying on their
back like a rag. |
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Patterns
The traditional Ragdoll is a cat with points and
comes in 3 patterns: |
Pointed
Only the face (mask), ears, legs and paws, and the
tail are colored with color. The nose leather has the same color as
the points.
The white on the body - also in the Colorpoint (having the
Siamese-points) - is shaded.
In the Colorpoint the contrast between the body and points is
strong, the body is evidently paler. |
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Tatjana's Halyssa of Silmarilions
Owner: Maria Federica Guagnano,
Silmarilions cattery, Rome, Italy |
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Showme
My Fair Lady
Owner: Michele Brandis,
Rivendolls cattery, Mandurah, Western Australia |
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Bicolor
The pointed cat has also a bicolor-pattern. In the
face there is an inverted "V", the back is shaded in the color of
the points (but distinctly paler) and may have white patches. The
nose leather is pink. The legs and paws are white. |
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S*Pocahontas Baileys of Calaquendi
Breeder: Susanna Lindkvist, Sweden
Owner: Mady Janssens,
Calaquendi's Dolls cattery, Wuustwezel, Belgium |
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Mitted
The pointed cat has points, i.e. the face (mask), the
ears, the legs and the tail are colored with color, but the paws are
white. The chin must be white. The cat has a white stripe starting
at the chin and running over the throat down to the belly and
abdomen.
A white stripe on the nose is optional, the stripe is only on the
nose bridge, the nose leather is colored in the point color. |
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Calaquendi's Dolls Meili
Breeder: Mady Janssens,
Calaquendi's Dolls cattery, Wuustwezel, Belgium |
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Colors
It is quite different amongst the various
organizations, when it comes to the color. |
Colorpoint
In some organizations only
cats with Colorpoint-pattern (Siamese-gene: cscs)
are recognized in the 3 patterns described above.
The Colorpoint has a paler body.
The eyes are blue in all 3 patterns. |
Mink
In other organizations there exist also Mink Ragdoll
in these 3 patterns.
Mink is genetically cbcs.
Mink have a distinctly darker body.
The eye color is aquamarine in all 3 patterns.
The colors are called, as follows: mink, mink bicolor,
mink mitted, for example: seal mink, blue mink bicolor,
chocolate mink mitted. |
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Castletops Love potion
Breeder: Heather Kerns,
Castletops cattery, Conowingo, Maryland, USA |
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Non-pointed
There are also
organizations, which have non-pointed Ragdolls registered
(genetically: C-, where "-" may be also cs
or cb), in all colors and patterns.
The eye color may be, besides blue, also orange, green or odd-eyed. |
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Calaquendi's Dolls Ginger Moon
Breeder: Mady Janssens,
Calaquendi's Dolls cattery, Wuustwezel, Belgium |
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Calaquendi's Dolls Milky Way Brownie
Breeder: Mady Janssens,
Calaquendi's Dolls cattery, Wuustwezel, Belgium |
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Pointed
| seal
point |
The
color of the points is a very dark brown (called "seal"). |
| blue
point |
The
color of the points is blue-grey. |
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Calaquendi's Mi-Âme Mirabilis
Breeder: Mady Janssens,
Calaquendi's Dolls cattery, Wuustwezel, Belgium |
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CH.
Filensio Miss Faberjai
Breeder: Helen Sallows,
Filensio cattery, Perranporth, Cornwall, United Kingdom |
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| chocolate point |
The
color of the points is chocolate, it shall not be too dark.
Frequently one may notice white spectacles around the eyes,
which is undesirable. |
| lilac point |
The
color of the points has a grey color tone with a pinkish tinge,
it is a rather pale color. |
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| red point |
The color of
the points is orange.
It is quite usual that the front legs are colored in a paler tone and
show faint rings. |
| cream point |
The color of
the points is a pale cream.
In general these cats look very pale. |
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Quad
Champion Brier Rose Mango Margarita
Breeder: Bonnie Hansson,
Brier
Rose cattery, Burlington, Iowa, USA |
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| seal tortie point |
The dark-brown
color of the points has orange patches.
Very often these cats also have an orange flame starting in the upper
part of the nose and continuing to the forehead. The cats are quite
attractive. |
| blue tortie point |
The blue-cream
points are the diluted variety of seal tortie. The blue-grey color of
the points is patched with very pale cream patches.
A very delicate color. |
| chocolate tortie point |
The chocolate
points have paler orange patches. |
| lilac tortie point |
The light grey
colored points have very pale cream patches. |
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- In some organizations also
cinnamon and fawn are recognized, and consequently also cinnamon tortie
and fawn tortie.
- Also caramel and apricot are recognized
in some organizations.
- And in some organizations also
smoke point for the non-tabby point variety, and silver tabby point
for the tabbypoint variety.
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All these color varieties also exist with stripes, called Tabby point:
- seal tabby point, blue tabby point
- chocolate tabby point, lilac tabby point
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Rivendolls Muffin
Breeder: Michele Brandis,
Rivendolls cattery, Mandurah, Western Australia |
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- cinnamon tabby point, fawn tabby point
- red tabby point, cream tabby point
- seal tortie tabby point, blue tortie tabby point
- chocolate tortie tabby point, lilac tortie tabby point.
- cinnamon tortie tabbypoint, fawn tortie
tabbypoint
The name "tortie" indicates that the cats have orange or
cream colored patches.
It is quite common in pointed cats to use the English color names and not to
translate them.
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Silmarilions Padraigin
Breeder: Maria Federica Guagnano,
Silmarilions cattery, Rome, Italy |
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Eurocatfancy
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Breed profile
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Ragdoll
are medium to large in size with semi-long coat, and the
"traditional" Ragdolls have points.
This breed is one of the larger cat breeds.
The cats are solid built, the body is slightly elongated, and not
cobby. The legs are medium in length and solid, the hind legs are
somewhat longer than the front legs. The paws are large and round,
and shall have tufts between the toes.
The head is broad and forms a wedge with rounded
contours. The cheeks are rounded, the muzzle is broad and rounded.
The head is flat on top between the ears.
The nose is medium in length and straight, in profile it shows a
gently curve in the upper third, i.e. the profile is not straight.
The ears are medium-sized, broad at the base (open) and - which is
characteristic for this breed - slightly tilted forward.
The eyes are large and oval. See the description of colors for the
eye color. The coat is medium in length,
plushy and silky with medium underwool. The is longest around the
neck, framing the face, and thus giving a bib. In the face the coat
is short. The coat falls smoothly from the body and becomes longer
toward the hind legs, thus being semi-long at the flaks and on the
belly and forming breeches at the hind legs. On the front legs the
coat is short. The tail is as long as the
body and fully furnished. |
History
The breed has an eventful history. Its founder, Ann
Baker (Raggedy Ann cattery), Riverside, California,
was a colorful person, who wanted to establish very restrictive
selling-contracts on a franchise basis, the buyers very soon separated from Mrs.
Baker.
She started in 1963 with this breed, when she crossed Josephine
(probably a white Angora cat) with the Burmese-like tom-cat of her neighbour,
Mrs. Pennel, which resulted in Daddy Warbucks in 1965, a seal mitted boy. She
also acquired Buckwheat, a black colored daughter of Josephine. Daddy Warbucks
was crossed back to Josephine, which resulted in Fugianna, a seal bicolor female
born on the 5th of May, 1965. These three cats, Daddy Warbucks, Buckwheat and Fugianna,
did not resemble a Ragdoll, but are the foundation cats of the Ragdoll. Daddy
Warbucks was also crossed with Buckwheat, which resulted in four kittens in
1965, two solid black colored kittens, Gueber and Mitts (with white paws), one
seal mitted boy, called Kyoto and one chocolate point girl, called Tiki. Kyoto
and Tiki were the cats to be registered as Ragdolls in the NCFA (National
Cat Fanciers Association), on the 30th of December, 1966.
Ann Baker divided the litters of Fugianna and Buckwheat into 2 groups:
- Light Side (with paler color), their
points were somewhat paler in color: the succeeding generations of
Fugianna
- Dark Side (with darker color), they had
a darker color at all: the succeeding generations of Buckwheat.
In 1969 Laura and Denny Dayton (Blossom-Time
cattery) bought a breeding pair from Ann Baker, called Buddy (seal
colorpoint) and Rosie (seal mitted). They had not signed one of
those restrictive contracts of Mrs. Baker. As Mrs. Baker wanted to
control all buyers and breeders, she founded the IRCA in 1971
to establish her restrictive franchise-contracts. Thus, many of the
buyers wanted to get rid of their contract and sold their Ragdolls.
Mrs Opel Jensen sold her 5 Ragdolls in 1971 to the Daytons, in
February 1972 Bob Minter sold his two Ragdolls, Pancho Villa and
Melonie, to the Daytons, and they also got the cats from Nancy &
Phil Delano, called Pecos Bill and Barbie.
Ann Baker was not interested to get the Ragdoll recognized by the
major cat organizations, it was the merit of the Daytons to get them
recognized. The breed was recognized by CFF in 1975, in 1993 it was
recognized by CFA for registration and in 2000 it was recognized for
championship.
You may read a very detailed history on the web
site of RFCI (in English). |
Temperament
Mrs. Baker claimed that Josephine got her docile character due
to the severe car accident, which she had, and that Josephine thereafter was
genetically mutated in her temperament, which she passed on to her kittens (it
is not correct that a car accident causes a genetic mutation). This is one of
the mystic legends, how the Ragdoll got her sweet character. Another story,
which was told by Ann Baker, was that Ragdolls do not feel pain. Also this
legend proofed to be false, a Ragdoll feels pain in the same way as all other
cats do.
In fact, the Ragdoll has a lovely and docile character. It is a very quiet and
relaxed breed. The cats may easily be trained to go on lashes. They make very
good companions with children and other companion animals. They adore their
owners. |
Grooming
The Ragdoll has a beautiful coat, which is very easy
going. The coat does not mat and knot. Their coat sheds very little. Very little
grooming is necessary, but the Ragdolls love to be brushed. |
Breeding
and Health
There has been found one Mutation for HCM in May 2007 by
Dr.Kathryn Meurs,
Washington State University, Veterinary Cardiac Lab:
cMyBP-C (MYBPC3-gene, cardiac myosin binding protein C), for this
mutation a DNA-test is available; the scientific name is R820W, C>T.
This mutation is inherited autosomal (sex-independent) dominant.
But, this is only one mutation, it cannot be excluded that there are
more than one mutations causing HCM. Thus, cats used for breeding
have to be tested by an echocardiogram every year, even they have
been tested negative for the mutation in the MYBPC3-gene. |
Literature
Winn Foundation, Update Jan. 2008 (in English) about HCM
Winn Foundation, Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (in
English)
Washington State University, Veterinary Cardiac Genetics Lab,
Pullman, WA
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