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Where Did Ragdoll Cats Come From?
By Trudy McDonald
Let me share a short story with you about the Ragdoll breed and how they came into being. When I first read about this I was drinking a can of Diet Coke and almost ended up with it all over the monitor. I have a feeling you'll find it as amazing and amusing as I did.
I'm going to break the story up into stages, even though it is interwoven. The reason I am doing this is that the story of the creation of the Ragdoll breed is convoluted to say the least. It took me a few reads to really understand what happened. So here it is...a short history of the Ragdoll Cat, and how they came into being.
There once was a woman named Ann Baker and she lived in California. She had two cats, Josephine and Daddy Warbucks. These two cats were to become the sires of a great breed of cats. Without going into excruciating details about it, Daddy Warbucks lived up to his name and eventually with Joesphine's kittens and his genes a new breed of cat was born. Ann Baker called them Ragdoll cats and then trademarked the name, demanding royalites from other breeders using the name "Ragdoll" for cats.
She started a cat registry in 1971, after breeding more
Ragdoll cats from Daddy Warbucks, called The International
Ragdoll Cat Association and claimed that the breed differed
in 5 ways from other breeds of cats:
1) They were relatively large;
2) They are less sensitive to pain;
3) They lack skills for self preservation;
4) Their fur does not mat together; and
5) Their bodies go limp when you hold them.
This was all very sane, but it didn't stay that way for long. It's an X-File! In a move worthy of Fox Mulder she started making very, very unlikely claims about the reason for the Ragdoll's traits. Some were out of this world. Literally. The Ragdoll Cat is not what you think it is, according to Ann Baker, who claimed that the genetics of the Ragdoll cat were from part of a secret government experiment in genetics...and that aliens gave her the breed. There were even more claims than this, but I don't know how you can possibly top that.
Despite her eccentricities Ann Baker was credited with setting the standard look and temperament of the breed. She was not the breeder that brought the Ragdoll cat international recognition, though. Denny and Laura Dayton are responsible for that happening.
While Ann Baker was taking a walk on the wild side they were setting up the Ragdoll Fanciers' Club International, and it was they that managed to get the breed registered with the NCFA, making the breed a recognized purebred.
You can think what you like. Maybe Daddy Warbucks was kidnapped by aliens and then became the father of a whole new breed of cats. Maybe it was hard work and careful breeding. I'm leaning toward the latter, personally. But if you see a flying saucer above your house, and are wondering why it is there, it could just be aliens wanting the return of their genetic cousin. You never know...
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Trudy_McDonald
http://EzineArticles.com/?Where-Did-Ragdoll-Cats-Come-From?&id=838871
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