All Ragdoll cats are descendants of Josephine, who is thought to have originally belonged to one of Ann Baker’s neighbors in California…
Josephine was struck by an automobile some time before she had her first litter of kittens, which Ann Baker noticed were larger and friendlier than other kittens.
Ann Baker was known to tell tall tales regarding the Ragdoll cat’s origin, thought that the car accident had something to do with it.
Out of Josephine’s first litter, Ann Baker chose Buckwheat and registered her with the National Cat Fanciers Association (NCFA) in 1963. Daddy Warbucks, now considered the father of the Ragdoll breed, came from mating between Buckwheat and a pointed Birman male.
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Fascinating. I never even knew about the Breed Ragdoll Cats. Thank you for sharing this information. I found you on Reddit.
I was both shocked and tickled to see the Ragdoll breed listed on an Animal Planet show called Cats 101. My family lived just down the street from Ann Baker in Highgrove Ca. at the time of her “discovery” of the “limp” kittens born to her cat (Josephine) that had been hit by a car and had suffered brain damage. Her Vet at the time told her there was nothing to be done for the cat and sent her home to die. Ann nursed it back to health, but it was never quite “right” afterwards. My mom thought she was more than a little nuts at the time, but humored her and her eccentric story because she loved cats so much herself. We neighborhood kids thought her pretty batty too, but she payed us all well for cleaning cat cages and feeding, grooming ect. But I always felt sorry for her poor cats. Ann’s cattery always smelled so BAD, and the poor things never got to roam free. The UCLA and human DNA and Alien stories were something new to me. Obviously something she dreamed up later. I’m still convinced that the original brain damaged cat has passed along her “retarded” traits and hence forth the docile breed. And to think that they have become a favorite breed. All I can say is WOW