The Ragdoll is a relatively new breed of cat which was first bred by a lady called Ann Baker in California, USA in the1960's.   Ann Baker was a breeder of Persians at that time and the founding queen of the Ragdoll breed was a non-pedigree Angora-type female called Josephine who was owned by one of Ann Baker's neighbours.

Josephine produced frequent litters of kittens which were all fairly wild until at some stage she was severely injured by a car and after her recovery it was noted that the kittens she produced were quite different in that they seemed to crave human attention and were very playful, loving and relaxed. This aroused Ann's interest and she started to acquire some of Josephine's kittens.   The first of these was a black self female called Buckwheat who is described as being similar to a Burmese but thick-furred.   Also at this time Ann had been borrowing one of Josephine's older sons to sire progeny in her black Persian breeding programme.   He had the appearance of a black/brown Persian and she named him Blackie.   He was the father of Buckwheat and on one of her visits to borrow Blackie she saw his brother who Ann described as being most impressive and having the appearance of the Sacred Cat of Burma (the Birman breed). She was most taken with this cat and named him Raggedy Ann Daddy Warbucks.

Ann was also able to obtain another daughter of Josephine's.   This one had a lot of white on her and was in essence a badly marked bicolour. Ann called her Raggedy Ann Fugianna.   Unfortunately when Josephine had a litter of kittens she was very protective of them and at some stage when she was defending her latest litter from the family dog the owner's husband decided that enough was enough and had Josephine and the kittens destroyed so we will never know if Ann would have used further offspring from Josephine for her Ragdoll breeding programme.   She did, however, have both Buckwheat and Fugianna and with the services of Daddy Warbucks was able to continue breeding her Ragdolls.

It is a common misconception that the Ragdoll was bred from the Birman breed but it is important to note that Ann Baker's description of Daddy Warbucks was that he had the "appearance" of the Sacred Cat of Burma. It should also be noted that the white spotting gene in the Bicolour and Mitted Ragdolls is quite different from that which produces the white gloves and gauntlets in the Birman.