Please respect the copyright of Helmi Flick, who is a professional photographer. Dreamer is a blue mackerel tabby and white cat.
Introduction
This cat’s history is fundamental to the reason for the existence of this breed of purebred cat. I have set out the history in a chart (an overview). This purebred cat is intricately bound up with the Ragdoll cat and was formed from a group of Ragdoll cat breeders as per the chart below. The history is a little confusing and hazy. If this is not right please tell me.
Update April 2010: I have received an email from Jane in respect of the 1967 date above:
1967 is well before anybody bought Ragdolls (for breeding) so it’s not really possible that anybody split away from Ann Baker’s ‘strict and unworkable policies for the Ragdoll’. The rest is a bit of an unusual view but that first date is the most difficult to understand.
I am investigating this. In the meantime if anyone has good clean information that I can use please email me or post it. The answer is hard to come by. Update Nov. 2010: Gloria Stephens in Legacy of the Cat says that a group of IRCA (International Ragdoll Cat Association, started by Ann Baker) breeders broke away from the group in the late 1980s. The cats they bred were “descended from the original Ragdolls”. They were bred to moggie domestic cats, Ragdolls, Persians and Himalayans (pointed Persians). This brought in the non-pointed colours.
The RagaMuffin cat in the photo above is, LuvNMuffins St Nick of Cortez Cats. He is a natural mink McTabby and white – (see a page on tabby and white cats)(new window). He lives with Jean Colson of Bradenton, FL, who says this about this handsome boy:
“….We own two of them (and are fostering two others) and find them to be wonderful cats — big, furry (nice, pretty-much non-matting fur) and friendly cats. We happen to show our two boys — and I’ll brag that one of them, LuvNMuffins St Nick of Cortez Cats (I know, quite a name) won three awards in ACFA (American Cat Fancier’s Assoc.) in the SouthEast Region (of the U.S.): he was 7th Best Kitten, 18th Best Cat (meaning whole, non-neutered) and 5th Best Alter during the past show year!! Quite an accomplishment — he also won a 10th Best Household Pet in TICA’s SE Region. RagaMuffins are not accepted for championship in TICA thus that is why he was shown as a Household Pet instead. Still he had QUITE a year…”
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Thanks. I’m so glad we found her after the rain storm. She was so scrawny, matted, muddy. And I’m surprised how quickly she went from being a missheveled stray to being such a beautiful loving (long.fluid-like.fluffy) cat full of personality.