SATURDAY'S CATS

Would you believe there is not one cat breed beginning with the letter Q so onto the R's it is.

The Ragamuffin (often spelled RagaMuffin) is a breed of domestic cat, a varient of the Ragdoll, that first made its appearance in 1994.  Ragamuffins are notable for their friendly personalities and thick, rabbit-like fur and I think they are quite beautiful, and easy to care for too, that's if you could afford to buy one.

They are a muscular, heavy breed of cat needing approximately four to five years to fully mature.  The physical traits of the breed include a rectangular, broad-chested body with shoulders supporting a short neck.  The head is a broad, modified wedge with a rounded forehead and a nose dip.  Although the coast is thick and plush, it does not readily mat or clump and is easy to care for.  These cats are bred to be sociable, affectionate, cuddly companions that are playful throughout their lives.

In the 1960s a regular non-pedigreed white domestic long haired cat named Josephine, who had produced several litters of typical cats, was injured in a car accident and taken to a laboratory at the University of California.  After she recovered, her next litter produced exceptionally friendly kittens.  When the subsequent litter produced more of the same,  Mrs Ann Baker (an established cat breeder) purchased several kittens from the owner, who lived behind her, and, believing she had something special, set out to create what is now known as the Ragdoll.  These are Ragdoll kittens:

 Mrs Baker, in an unusual move, spurned traditional cat breeding associations.  She trademarked the name "Ragdoll", set up her own registry - International Ragdoll Cat Asssociation (IRCA) - and imposed stringent standards on anyone who wanted to breed or sell cats under that nae.  The Ragdolls were also not allowed to be registered in other breed associations.  In 1975, a group broke rank with the IRCA with the aim of gaining mainstream recognition for the Ragdoll.  This group eventually developed the Ragdoll standard currently accepted by major cat registries.

In 1994, a second group decided to leave the IRCA and form its own group because of increasingly strict breeding restrictions.  Owing to Ann Baker's trademark on the name "Ragdoll", the group renamed its stock of Ragdoll cats "Ragamuffins".  While the name was initially put forth as a joke by one of the group founders, when the original registry could not be undone, the name stuck.  One of the first concerns of the group was the genetic health of its stock which was alerady in its fifth generation of inbreeding.  So in the spirit of bettering the breed's genetic health and personality, it outcrossed to Persians, Himalayans, and domestic long-haired cats, which increased the distinctiveness of the Ragamuffin from its Ragdoll ancestors.  The group did allow some Ragdoll inbreeding as well (which ended in 2010 for ACFA-recognised Ragamuffins).  Only cats wth at least one RagaMuffin parent and an ACFA-accepted outcross currently qualify to be called RagaMuffins.  CFA Ragamuffins may only have Ragamuffin parents.

The cost of buying a pedigreed Ragamuffin has been typically higher than for its Ragdoll relatives by several hundred collars.  Pet quality kittens start at around $1,000.00.

The first cat association to accept the breed at full show champion status was the United Feline Organisation (UFO), and while some major cat associations still refuse to accept the Ragamuffin as a recognised breed (primarily because of its close association with the Ragdoll), it was accepted into the American Cat Fancier's Association (ACFA) and finally the Cat ancier's Asssociation (CFA) accepted them into the Miscellaneous Class February, 2003 and advanced to Championship Class in February, 2011.

Thanks to Wikipedia.  Apart from the third picture of two Ragdolls the others are all Ragamuffins.