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About Us
Here at Regal Ragdolls we raise Ragdoll kittens a little differently to insure you go home
with not only a pet, but also a loving new member of your family.
As house cats, Ragdolls are well known to have a warm and docile temperament anyway, but we like to make sure our cats have lots of human interaction from very early on to insure our kittens are extra friendly, confident and affectionate around humans.
From the minute they are born our kittens and their mother will sleep in the same room as us,
and are petted, talked to and interacted with by us to assure that their connection to humans is just as strong as their connection to other cats.
We really believe that this is the best way to raise our kittens, so that they are confident and ready to build a meaningful relationship with their new human once they are taken home.
Breeder history
I have been breeding animals for over twenty years now and also have a degree in animal welfare (BSC hons).
I bred alpacas and goats for over ten years, non-pedigree cats and King Charles Cavalier Spaniels for over twenty years. And now I've been breeding pedigree Ragdoll cats for just over three years, with great success, and am a member of the Progressive Ragdoll Breed Cat Club (PRBCC), so you can be assured that you'll be receiving the best quality kitten from an experienced breeder.
The History of Ragdolls
Although the origin of the Ragdoll cat has been somewhat controversial in it's veracity, it is widely accepted that the breed originated in California, USA in 1963.
Anne Baker, an established cat breeder, mated her long-haired white Persian 'Josephine' with two different males (a Birman and a Burmese), which resulted in kittens with typical traits,
but Baker claims that in the following days Josephine was involved in an accident that seemed to have a notable effect on her future litters.
After being knocked over by a car and spending the next few days in the University of California's veterinary hospital, Josephine's following litters all seemed unusually large, affectionate, and displayed a trait after which they would eventually be named-
a tendency to go limp when picked up and held, like a rag doll. Captivated by this unique new breed, Baker became quickly focused on perfecting and producing
more "Ragdoll cats". She acquired two Burmese males;
a seal-point called 'Daddy Warbucks' and a Black cat called 'Blackie'. This would set the foundation of Baker's Ragdoll cat breeding program, which once established would go on to break even more boundaries; as Baker decided to establish her own breeding registry (the International Ragdoll Cat Association) over joining any established ones. This was apparently not very well received by a lot of breeders, as Baker prohibited any other budding Ragdoll breeders from registering their cats with any other association other than hers.
As years went on it of course became possible for Ragdoll breeders to register their cats with other main registries, such as the CFA and FIFE. This was mainly due to Denny and Laura Dayton who fought for the breed to be recognised by other associations.
The first Ragdoll cats to then be sold out of the US were sold to a breeder from the UK, who introduced the breed to Britain, where Ragdoll cats officially became recognised by the GCCF in the early 1990s.
It was after this that the breed was introduced to other countries around Europe, which in turn lead the breed to find it's way to many more countries around the world.
Most established cat registries and associations still don't recognise Ragdoll cats registered with Baker's IRCA today. Due to Baker's resistance against established cat breeding associations, a large number of breeders left the IRCA as time went on, and went on to establish their own association in 1994.
Of course, Baker had trademarked the name 'Ragdoll', so other breeders opted for the name 'Ragamuffin' as when registering that particular breed.
Although Baker passed away in 1997, her breed of cats is still one of the most popular in the world. And although the 'true' origins of the breed have always been in dispute, it is certain that Ragdolls are one of the lovliest, most docile and most loyal breeds of cat in existence. And we are very proud to be involved in introducing this lovely pet to new people all over the UK.
Robert Ronderdale, Ragdoll Cats: The Ragdoll Cat Owner's Manual (USA: IMB Publishing, 2015), pp. 8-9.