The Ragdoll Cat Breed
The Ragdoll cat’s origins are filled with wild and bizarre stories. The stories frequently contradict depending on who the storyteller is and much of it borders on the ridiculous. The factual part of the Ragdoll cat’s beginnings is that breed was founded in 1960s California. The first Ragdoll breeder was a reclusive woman named Ann Baker that enjoyed telling stories about her cats. The very first Ragdoll was a white cat she named Josephine.
Baker saw a characteristic in the cat Josephine that became the hallmark of the breed. When Ann held Josephine the cat went limp in her arms like a rag doll. Ann Baker named the breed for this limp trait and filed for a trademark so she could collect royalties from anyone to breed her cats. She started a registry for breeding Ragdoll cats but lost control because of wild behaviors and story telling.
Ragdoll cats do indeed go limp when held; however, Ann Baker had wild explanations for why the cats do this. Her stories go back to the night Josephine was hit by an automobile. Baker claims she rushed to a local University seeking treatment for Josephine’s injuries and the University changed her cat’s DNA. As a result of this genetic manipulation the Ragdoll cat breed was born.
Ann baker made other wild claims, telling people for instance that her cats did not feel pain. She claimed the cats had been altered genetically and their DNA was actually a hybrid of aliens and cats. Look out x-files; alien cat hybrids have been hiding out in California since the 60s. Baker made other wild claims telling people the cats did not have fear and were hypoallergenic. She claimed that Ragdoll cats were the ideal pet for anyone suffering from allergies. When it comes to Ann Baker and the history of her cat breed, the stories she told are stranger than science fiction.
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