Neue Seite 41

The original created by Ann Baker, California/USA
Copyright by S. Klaus und T. Röllin

The curriculum vitae of the original Ragdoll from its foundation until the year of 2013

(since 1985 in the german speaking area)

The original Ragdoll is the only cat race with a gapless genetic chart which shows that the submitted cats trace back to the foundation cats. All datas of the Ragdolls, which were bred worldwide, were submitted there by Danny Dayton. He started with the foundation cats in the beginning and end up to the year of 1994.

Hybrid race
The race Ragdoll is a so called hybrid race which was bred from races or racial crossovers, to be read in Wikipedia – hybrid race – link click here.
One of the foundation cat shall has been a white Persian cat with the name Josefine, the second one a cat similar to the Burmese with the name Burman. The first boy was a boy with point-marking and white paws. He should not have been a birman cat but similarily marked to a birman, his name was Birman (source: genetic chart of Danny Dayton).

Still up to now the original Ragdoll is the most extraordinary race, because it only appears in 3 pattern and 4 colors, no matter how the cat is mated.
Dayton – and with him a lot of other breeders - recognized the extraordinary about this race. Up to now the foundation roots have survived because there were breeders and lovers of this race in every time who knew about the worth of this original Ragdoll.

1965: founder Ann Baker
The founder of the Ragdoll, Ann Baker, California (USA), registered her new race as RAGDOLL and showed her race to the public. The race was very famous because of its special look, the appealing essence, the blue eyes and its size. Ann Baker’s cattery is: “Raggedy Ann”

(source: genetic chart of Danny Dayton).

1966/1967: foundation cats
The foundation cat of the light line, Josefine, ist dead (source: The definitive guide to Ragdoll). Three babies out of Josefine stayed in the breeding program. The names were: Daddy Warbuck, Fugiana and Gueber. These are the kitten of the F1-generation of the light line. They all had the color seal and the patter mitted. It can be said too that these three kitten were the first Ragdolls of this line.
The foundation cat of the dark line was the cat Burman. From the mating Burman and Daddy Warbuck the cat Buckwheat was born. She is the F1-generation of the dark line. She had the color seal and the patter point. She was the first Ragdoll of the dark line. Only two kitten out of her went to a breeding program: Tiki and Kyoto

(source: genetic chart of Danny Dayton).

1969/1970 first breeder
The first important breeders who bought cats from Ann Baker were:

Danny Dayton with the cattery name “Blossom Time”,

David Chambers with the cattery nam “Ragnarok”,

Blanche Herman with the cattery name “Ragtime” (USA),

Breeder Peek with the cattery name “Blue Mountain” (Oregon, USA)

(source: genetic chart of Danny Dayton).

1969/1970 genetic chart of Danny Dayton (the beginning) As Ann Baker kept all documents (pedigrees of all cats, up to the foundation cats) Danny Dayton started simultaneously with his breeding program to lead a pedigree for the Ragdoll. The pedigree of a race is called: genetic chart. Why? With every name/date of birth/life nr. a color designation is submitted too. From this the genetic code can be read. All breeders were teached to send copies of the pedigrees to Dayton. He submitted all kittens whose parents already were submitted in the genetic chart. He practiced his work on this chart with a typewriter on paper without any gap for 25 years until 1994. People could buy this genetic chart up to the year about 1994 – one (last) ist owned by Tina Röllin, Schweiz, club of original Ragdolls (VdOR)

(source: Defintive Guide to Ragdoll/genetic chart D. Dayton, VdOR).

1970 concession
Ann Baker asked from all new breeders (first in the year of 1970) a concession that means that the breeders had to pay a special amount to Ann Baker for each kitten/litter. She did not ask a price yet from Danny Dayton by contract which was the reason why the relationship between both was no more the best (source: definitve guide to Ragdoll).

1970/1985 Blue Mountain (BM) and Purple Heather (PH)
Dayton submitted the Ragdolls of two breeders in his genetic chart, the cattery names were: “Blue Mountain” and “Purple Heather”. He kept the ancestors of this cats as a secret. According to the genetic chart Dayton was very scrupulous and so very precise so that people nowadays can conclude that he never would have submitted cats from which he did not know the ancestors. The chart was his work of life, his contribution for this wonderful and unique race with recognition value.
The VdOR was so very sure that Dayton only submitted purebred Ragdolls!

The president of the VdOR had the following conjecture until 13.02.2013:
The concessions were the reasons which could be avoided when changing form IRCA (club Ann Baker) to RFCI (club Danny Dayton). (If nobody knew that it was bred with Ann Baker’s cats – which were under concession – nobody would not not need to be scared that Ann Baker would ask for the money by court.) So Dayton did not submit the Raggedy Ann Ragdolls intentionally in the genetic chart. All Ragdolls from BM or PH without ancestors were not accepted in other clubs as the right Ragdoll. This situation still continues nowadays because no one made the effort to investigate the genetic chart.
Today, 13 of February 2013, we - the board of directors of the VdOR – checked the Dayton- and RFCI charts concerning this problem. We now can say with certainty that our conjecture was right and we found the following: The breeder “Blue Mountain” bought his Ragdolls directly from Ann Baker and with the biggest certainty these cats were under Ann Baker’s concessions.

Found!

But there are two exceptions from the Dayton-chart (and also the RFCI-chart):

“Blue Mountain” Casanova, he is submitted with date, he is from:

“Raggedy Ann” Thumper Jr., DOB 27 of April 1969 and

“Raggedy Ann” Dolly, DOB 10 of April 1969.

From the boy there were :

BLUE MOUNTAIN LITTLE BEA, and from the girl:

JD’s BOJANGLES, from them the kitten:

BM BITSY – BM GLORIA – BM MISTER MITTS – BM NATSCHA – BM PATTON – BM SHANIKO – BM TIFFANY.
Those two Ragdolls were bought from Ann Baker still before she wanted the concessions. With this example you can see that the Ragdolls from “Blue Mountain” and

“Purple Heather” were direct offspring from “Raggedy Ann” Ragdolls

(source: RFCI- and VdOR-Dayton genetic chart)

Naturally Ann Baker never had given Ragdoll cats in a breeding program in the first years which did not have the original 4 colors and the 3 pattern; she would have destroyed her own race when doing so! Dayton and Chambers sold their breeding cats to those both catteries too

(source: RFCI and VdOR – Dayton genetic chart).

Conjecutre of the VdOR: When Ann Baker began to bring new colors into the Ragdoll (look: about 1985) PH/BM wanted to change to the RFCI, club of Danny Dayton, because the breeder of the RFCI still bred the original Ragdoll. In those days were and nowadays are breeders who appreciate the pure traditional Ragdoll! We think that this is the only trace Dayton left back as a proof

(source: RFCI and VdOR-Dayton genetic chart).

1975 foundation of the RFC
Dayton founded the club RFC – later on the RFCI came out of this “Ragdoll Fanciers Club International

(source: rfci.org):

1975 foundation of the club IRCA
Foundation of the IRCA (International Ragdoll Cat Association) and Ragdoll-breeding guidelines by Ann Baker

(source: Defintiv Guide to Ragdoll).

1975 Patent on: 3 pattern and 4 colors (by Ann Baker)
On the 9 of September 1975 – that was 10 years after the registration of her race! – Ann Baker put a patent on her race (supposedly until 2005), on the 3 pattern colorpoint, mitted and bicolor and on the 4 colors seal, blue, chocolate and lilac. She hoped that her race Ragdoll would last in its appearance. Because of this patent and the Danny Dayton genetic chart the founder stem of the Ragdoll retained in its original appearance like it was patented. We call this Ragdoll today the Original Ragdoll. To maintain this original line the name Original-Ragdoll is used. www.original-ragdoll.ch.

1978 1 introgression of colors
In this year the 1 introgressions of colors were done in the USA, that means the Ragdoll was mated to other races. Such animals were of course not submitted in the Dayton genetic chart

(source: Defintiv Guide to Ragdoll and private change of letters between Ann Baker and other breeders).

1978 brochure of Ann Baker
Ann Baker published the brochure “IRCA and the Ragdoll Documentary” about breeding and maintainance of the pure Ragdoll-line in the 3 pattern and 4 colors

(source: Defintiv Guide to Ragdoll).

1979/1980 genetic verification
Dayton let verify the race Ragdoll to its purity by the geneticist Dr. Solveig Pfluegers. The result:

“If you can predict by targeted matings which patter will arise so you can say that the Ragdoll is bred genetically homozygously.” Look more: heredity….

(source: The Ragdoll, brochure: IG-Ragdoll).