The ragdoll history

The history of the Ragdoll begins in California with a lady whose name was Mrs Ann Baker. Her neighbour Mrs Pennel owned a white long-haired cat, which was called "Josephine". Ann Baker was very interested in Josephine and asked Mrs Pennel to let her mate Josephine with a Birman and keep the kittens for herself. Josephine had had several litters before, in which the kittens had been very big with blue eyes and semi-long haired.
In the litter with the Birman were two males, Daddy Warbucks and Geuber, and these two were the first Ragdolls; even though the name "Ragdoll" was not given to them yet. The two males were what we now call "mitted". Mrs Baker decided to mate back Daddy Warbucks to Josephine, as she thought that it was something special with these two males. The result was a female called Fugianna and she was a seal bicolour. If there were any more kittens in that litter with Fugianna, we do not know because Fugianna is the only one that is described and from her we have the line that is given the name "lightside".
Ann Baker contacted some geneticists and together they created a breeding program to continue developing the race. To prevent more inbreeding they decided to mix another breed in the program, and they decided for a brown Burmese. In some stories about the Ragdoll a black Persian is mentioned, but in the genealogical tree that every Ragdoll could discover, it is described "Burmese". Another thing that prooves that is that Ann Baker gave the cats in that line Asian names such as Kyoto, Tiki, Toy Ling, Woo Wong, et.c, to compare with the Burmese ancestors which had such names. Anyhow, the Burmese was mated to Daddy Warbucks and the result was a seal colourpoint female, Buckwhet. She was mated back to her father and they got Kyoto, a seal mitted male, and Tiki, a seal colourpoint female. Tiki is first mother in the line called "darkside". All these cats are registrated in the cattery name "Raggedy Ann". Ann Baker started to market her cats, and she called them Ragdolls, but she was very strict with her buyers and forbid them to breed Ragdolls unless she gave them a "licence" to breed, and they must follow her rules and directions. One breeder, Mr Denny Dayton- Blossom Time Cattery- did not share Mrs Bakers opinions in what way the Ragdoll should be bred and after a quarrel in court and in media, he started to breed them in the way he thought was the right way to go further with the breed. The Blossom Time Cattery and Denny Dayton has made the Ragdoll well-known all over the world. Denny Dayton started "Ragdoll Fanciers Club International (RFCI) which has the purpose to get the Ragdoll approved as a breed in the different American cat associations. He also started to write the big genealogical tree in which all Ragdolls could be traced. The work in the RCFI has resulted in that all American cat associations has now approved the Ragdoll. The first association was NCFA in 1969 and in the spring of 1993 the CFA, which is the biggest and most important association

Source:Scandinavian Ragdoll Club, written by Christine Landin