Ragdoll

“oh, ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Ah, ah-ah-ah
Rag doll, ooh
(Hand me down) when she was just a kid, her clothes were hand me down
(Hand me down) they always laughed at her, when she came into town
Called her, “Rag doll, little, rag doll”
Such a pretty face, should be dressed in lace (dressed in lace)
Ooh, ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh”

• Ragdoll – written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio and recorded by The Four Seasons, released as a single in 1964

I realize the Four Seasons song “Ragdoll” was not written about cats, but it’s the most appropriate song I could find for today’s post about our Ragdoll cats. I always liked the song, so feel free to sing along in your head as you are reading this (as I am while I’m writing it).

I have previously written a few blogs about our cats. Sadly in a short period of time, we lost Cora, Emmy, and Jesse. That left us with our 13-year-old Susie, along with our recently adopted 2-year old Eli. Young Eli likes to play, and old Susie likes to sleep, so we decided to get another playmate for Eli. All of our cats were rescues, which we strongly support. But we always thought it would be fun to have a Ragdoll cat, so it was now or never- we aren’t getting any younger. We debated the pros and cons of getting a registered Ragdoll – the cons being they could easily outlive us and they are very expensive; the pros- they are unique, beautiful, and are extremely affectionate. Eva searched far and wide and surprisingly found a local veterinarian who breeds Ragdolls in her basement cattery. After doing our homework and talking to the breeder, we decided to put a down payment on a cat from an upcoming litter. Somehow that turned into 2 Ragdolls (from different litters), so they could keep each other company. And here is the story of “Sophie” and “Mario”.

As aptly described in Wikipedia, “The Ragdoll is a breed of cat with a distinct color point coat and blue eyes. Its morphology is large and weighty, and it has a semi-long and silky soft coat. American breeder Ann Baker developed Ragdolls in the 1960s. They are best known for their docile, placid temperament, and affectionate nature. The name Ragdoll is derived from the tendency to go limp and relaxed when picked up. Ragdolls are known as dog-like cats due to their tendency to follow people around, their receptiveness to handling, and their relative lack of aggression towards other pets. Ragdolls are distinguishable by their pointed coloration (where the body is lighter than the face, ears, legs, and tail), large round blue eyes, soft, thick coats, thick limbs, long tails, and soft bodies.”

The breeder asked us to select a cat from the litter. They were identified by different color ribbons. They were all so cute, but after meeting them, Eva picked the red-ribboned kitty on the far left. We named her “Sophie”, since my grand-daughter frequently used the name “Sophie” for her dolls when she was playing.

All Ragdoll kittens are born white, and their adult colors gradually develop over 2–3 years, influenced by genetics and temperature-sensitive pigmentation. The six main colors of Ragdolls are seal, chocolate, blue, lilac, red, and cream, although some associations also include cinnamon and fawn. These colors can either be solid or shaded with lynx (tabby) markings, tortie, or a combination of both, known as tortie-lynx. For every Ragdoll cat color, the breed standard states that all points should be clearly defined along the face mask, ears, tail, legs, and feet. There are also “pattern types”, which determine how white appears on the body: Colorpoint – no white, classic pointed look; Mitted – white paws, chin, and sometimes a blaze; Bicolor – inverted “V” mask with white legs and belly.

Sophie is a “seal bicolor”. Seal point Ragdolls have fur in a warm cream-to-fawn color, which fades into a lighter shade across their tummies and chests. Her points are a deep and rich brown, with the nose leather and paw pads in the same shade. Sophie is very playful and curious. Compared to all of the other cats we’ve owned, she has long hair and is very soft and fluffy. She displays the trademark Ragdoll trait of going limp when you pick her up. While the matriarch of our cat clan, Susie, avoided her at all costs, Eli was happy to finally have a young, active kitty playmate. As they suggest in all the cat books, we tried isolating her in the study while the other cats got used to her, but she wanted no parts of that. So we let them intermingle pretty early on.

Now the plot thickens. The breeder/vet mentioned to Eva there was a cat from another litter which was not yet claimed. She was holding onto it because she thought it was a bit small, and wanted to do some testing to make sure it was healthy and just small for his age, rather than sick, before selling him. Well, we’ve had four cats before and we knew Sophie would love another Ragdoll playmate, so after much discussion we agreed to take him as well, if he cleared his tests and was healthy enough to be released. After several weeks we found out he was fine, so we got Ragdoll #2. Sophie was named with our grand-daughter’s help, so now it was our grandson’s turn. He’s big fan of the Mario Brothers, so we went with naming him “Mario”.

Mario is a blue bicolor, so he has similar markings to Sophie, but his points are a deep gray-blue color as opposed to Sophie’s seal-brown points. Blue bicolors have tummies and chests that will be almost pure white. Their paw pads and nose leather are slate gray. Aside from their slight color difference, Mario’s mask completely surrounds his eyes whereas, at least for now, Sophie’s mask hasn’t come in as much- it’s an easy way to tell them apart. And as affectionate as Sophie is, Mario is even more so. He loves being around people and other cats.

Like all cats usually do, our new cats quickly worked on establishing a hierarchy within our kitty clan. There were occasional cat fights to see who was the boss. At some times it seemed to get rather rough. We did some research and found out as long as their claws weren’t out, no one was hissing, and no one appeared scared or angry, it was just playful fighting. Old Susie avoided it altogether, but Sophie, Mario, and Eli initially did their share of battling to be king of the hill. They would tussle, chase each other, and then come back for more. We watched them carefully and broke it up if it seemed anyone was getting too aggressive, but it was mostly all playful. At this point I’d have to say Mario is the boss- if he wants to eat from another cat’s bowl, they passively move out of the way. While Eli was a bit of a bully at times when we first got them, they are quickly outgrowing him, so he is realizing they aren’t so easy to push around anymore. Over time the playful wrestling turned to gentle grooming of each other. Susie came out of hiding. She doesn’t play much anymore, but she doesn’t mind hanging out and sleeping near them now.

Some special traits of Mario and Sophie: They both love looking out the window at the birds and wildlife outside- they enjoy it so much we tend to open the windows even when it’s cold or there’s a light drizzle. (We’ll have to stop that as winter approaches). They are very inquisitive- one day we couldn’t find either one of them. We eventually heard some meowing in the basement- they were both stuck underneath a sofa cover in the basement and couldn’t get out (we subsequently removed the cover). They don’t like it when we leave the house, and they wait patiently by the door for us to return. They both like to eat any food in sight, and chew on just about anything- I went into the study one day and found tiny bits of paper all over the floor and a chewed-up piece of paper on my desk. (They spit it out after chewing- maybe it’s just a teething thing.) My grand-daughter loves the fact that she can hold them and sit with them, which she could never do with our other cats. (They are still a bit afraid of her, but their submissive nature makes it easy to hold them without them wiggling away.) They do require more maintenance than our previous cats because of the long coats, so combing, detangling, and shaving the long hair around their butts is a requirement.

Oddly I was always a dog person- until I got tired of taking our dog out to do his business in bad weather. When he passed, we decided to go with cats, since they are lower maintenance. But I never realized how loving and affectionate and fun cats can be. While I’m looking forward to our Disney vacation next year, it will be hard to leave our kitty clan. They are truly part of our family.

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