Ragdoll History

If you are ready to see beautiful angel ragdoll kittens, go to our "Angel Kittens" page.

(All pictures and text is the property of Angel Girl Ragdolls, unless otherwise noted. Permission for use can be granted by request only.)

Brief History of the Ragdoll:

A relatively new breed.  Large size, loving and affectionate temperament, long non-matting coats, striking appearance, and blue eyes in the traditional type. Perfect for people who thought (as we did) that only a dog could love them back.

The Ragdoll breed was first created by a woman breeding Persians named Ann Baker in Riverside, California in the 1960's. The story of the mother of all Ragdolls is a mystical one that includes both the famous cat, and her breeder, Ann Baker. The true story proves that fact is stranger than fiction.

The lady cat who started it all was a beautiful and friendly white part-feral girl named 'Josephine'. She just happened to live next door to Ann Baker. This neighbor who claimed ownership of Josephine were the Pennels, who were neighbors of Ann's, but who did not show her proper care. Josephine 'changed' after surviving an almost fatal car accident, which required time in a hospital and which left her missing an eye. Ms. Baker noticed that after the accident, Josie seemed friendlier, and her next litter of wild kittens craved attention and were not shrinking violets. Ms. Baker asked the Pennels if she could breed Josephine (a white female feline of unknown origins... described by Ms. Baker and some others as having Turkish Angora looks, and some Persian tendencies) to one of her pedigreed Persians. The Pennels did not seem to care, and from there, a new breed was created.

Josephine became the foundation of Ragdolls due to the outstanding temperament, large size, good coat quality, and beautiful appearance of her offspring, which Ms. Baker recognized. She eventually registered Josephine's litters under the new breed name of "Ragdolls."

Supposed picture of Josephine with some of the kittens used later, possibly Persian-sired 'Blackie'.

Ms. Baker then bred Josephine to two of her own dark Persian boys by different fathers; one was a male Persian-type cat, 'Blackie' and his half-brother, a Birman-looking dark 'Daddy Warbucks' of unknown parentage (below).

The resulting kittens were so fluffy, large, craving of human attention, and attractive that she started two breeding programs. Female 'Buckwheat' (below) from 'Blackie' headed up "The Dark Side", for Mitted and Colorpoint kittens...

" The Dark Side (mitted and colorpoint) "

Female 'Buckwheat' above, and daughter of Josephine and Blackie

" The Light Side (bicolor) "

The second group was headed up by Fugianna, the daughter of Daddy Warbucks and Josephine, and was called "The Light Side" for bicolors. Both girls were to mate with Daddy Warbucks to produce the first Ragdolls.

Female 'Fugianna' above, and daughter of Josephine and Daddy Warbucks

Ann Baker's dedication to Josephine's offspring and her two new programs led her to register them as a new breed (Ragdolls) in 1965. The cattery name was called "Raggedy Ann" and the first two kittens registered by Ann Baker included a seal mitted male, named "Raggedy Ann Kyoto", and a chocolate colorpoint female named "Raggedy Ann Tiki". Yes, Ann Baker had chocolate ragdoll kittens from the very beginning. We carry on this long tradition of offering ragdoll kittens in chocolate here in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC

This proves that Chocolates have been in the Ragdolls since the beginning of the Ragdoll Breeding Program started by Ms. Baker.

A Little about Lilac Ragdolls and Chocolate Ragdolls in the History of Breeders

Due to breeders not understanding color and genetics, the colors of chocolate and lilac were all but lost. Some breeders, like AngelGirls, tried to find the last remaining lilacs in the gene pool, and others, like Gerda Stapel from Australia, started an officially licensed chocolate and lilac outcross program. Her cats were given the call names of "Dancingmist" and "Icedolls". If you want to learn more about Gerda Stapel's really outstanding chocolate/lilac program, please visit her website.

There are a handful of other Ragdoll breeders, starting in the USA and Australia, who started to outcross to other breeds like the Birman, the Himalayan or the Balinese in the mid 1990's to bring in (or to re-introduce) the chocolate gene. In the cat associations, usually a cat that is NOT a ragdoll has to breed through three generations before the kitten is considered a full-bred Ragdoll with SBT title. We have found that many of these 'Ragdolls' are a very sad imitation. They often don't have the right fur, or look, or ear set, or personality, and many have acquired some of the health problems of their ancestor's secondary breed.

But, the Ragdoll is a unique, man-made, American breed. It is not as long in the making as the Turkish Van, the Maine Coon, or the Birman.

However, here at AngelGirls, we have done nothing but strive to perfect the lilac and chocolate Ragdoll, and the type just gets better from generation to generation. We have worked hard to perfect the lilac and chocolate ragdoll. We can happily claim the first International Grand Champion Lilac Ragdoll.

Many breeders specializing in "chocolate" and "lilac" Ragdolls even today are in fact breeding poorly colored seals and blues. We have bought a few of those! This is all before color testing, of course. Unfortunately, often incorrect pedigrees are never corrected. We prefer to breed our own cats, but when we do buy a new baby, we always get a DNA color test and an HCM test before we agree to bring them on board.

How the Ragdoll's got some Notoriety...

Back in 1969, Ann Baker sold two breeders to Denny and Laura Dayton, who named their program Blossom-Time. Their first breeding pair from Ann was "Raggedy Ann Rosie", a seal mitted, and "Raggedy Ann Buddy", a seal colorpoint. They named their cattery after Rosie (Rose) and Buddy (Bud). They named most of their offspring after flowers, herbs and living plants like Lily and Sunflower. The very first Blossom-Time litter was born May 30, 1970.

The Dayton's and Ms. Baker ultimately did not agree on breeding practices and had many legal disputes, however these two groups of people are ultimately responsible with the creation of what is now known as the Ragdoll breed.

Ann's breeding program was a strict one. The IRCA booklet described Ann's breeding program as follows. New owners were sold a cross of Fugianna and Tiki kittens. They had to line breed for seven generations and not use any resulting male offspring for breeding purposes, only the male originally purchased. After the seventh generation, they had to use another direct son of Josephine's, (purchased from Ann) at which point they could breed 'authentic' Ragdolls.

The Dayton's were excellent marketers, while Ann was a meticulous journal keeper and breeder. As the legal disputes mounted, the Dayton's made several claims against Ms. Baker that may have been fiction, but have gone down in Ragdoll history. Eventually, as Ms. Baker aged, she started to make outlandish claims about Ragdolls herself, including the claim that they were immune to pain and were part skunk. This led her to lose a lot of the credibility she had earlier developed. It was at this time that the Dayton's role in Ragdoll history increased.

The Famous "Blossom-Time Photo by Denny Dayton of the three Ragdoll patterns all in the color of Seal. Left to Right: Mitted, BiColor, and Colorpoint. This picture is obviously taken from the FRCI website banner. A wonderful club that we belong to, and which we talk about on our links page. Their site contains an even more detailed history of the Ragdoll!

Denny's excellent record keeping was the start of all of the Ragdoll pedigree's we have today. Ms. Baker died in 1997 to the dismay of friends, family and admirers world-wide.

ALL ANGELGIRL RAGDOLLS TRACE THERE PEDIGREE's BACK TO RAGGEDY ANN OR BLOSSOM TIME CATS.

CFA and TICA are the two biggest cat associations in the United States; and all of our cats are registered with at least one of these associations.

For more information on the origination of the Ragdoll breed, click http://www.rfci.org/history/chapter1.php

For the complete story the best source is "The Definitive Guide to Ragdolls" by Robin Pickering, David Pollard, and Lorna Wallace.

If you want to know more about Ragdolls, we recommend you check out our "Little Angels" page to see kittens that could be your very own, or read our "Colors" page for all the colors we create here in Angel Heaven!