ragdoll review

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Average Ratings

Value for Money	8.3/10
Reviewer Rating	8.8/10
Overall Rating	8.8/10

83% Recommended5 out of 6 Reviews

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By darktemplar01 on 20th Mar 2006

darktemplar01's Ratings

Value for money	10/10
Overall value	10/10
darktemplar01's recommendation

Good Points

These are simply the best breed of cat you can get

Bad Points

Only that the current crop of breeders in the U.K. have screwed up their size.

General Comments

I am a total expert on this breed. Our family were the third Ragdoll Cat breeders in England. We won a lot of rosettes for our cats. We had champions and Grand champions in England.

We have sold cats to the Sheik of Doha, who turned up in a stretched limo and two armed guards. He bought two kittens, who (although now are probably a good 15 years old), who eat off gold plates, the lucky lil souls.

we started in the 1980's, and sold up in the mid 1990's to to family reasons. The breed were known to be big, with our biggest stud male measuring around 3 foot 3 from the tip of his nose to the tip of the last bone in his tail, and weighed about 16 - 18 1/2 pounds. His name was Toffee Crunch. If you had his front paws on your shoulder, his rear paws would be by your crotch.

The disposition of the Ragdoll I think is unique. They purr when you do anything to them, even if they don't like it. My one hates being on her back, but she'll let you do it, and she'll purr away like a tractor.

They follow you everywhere inside the house. In our case it was outside as well. We would regularly take one or two of the males on a "walkie" round the small cul-de-sac we lived in in Milton Keynes. It was quite funny to watch the drapes, curtains or blinds twitch as everyone watched the "mad cat breeders" walk their cats. Yet despite this, EVERYONE knew who we were, and where we lived. If a customer got lost in our area, he or she could knock on any door, and they would get directions.

Now though, the breeding stock in England has become smaller, to the point where the Ragdoll is now the size of a standard moggy. They have also cross bred them with what looks like Maine Coons &/or Norwegian Forest cats, and to me it looks nice, but isn't a proper Raggy.

The kittens, when brought up indoors (which is the "correct" way. i.e. it gets them used to hoovers, kids, etc, and means they can deal with all this better than if they were brought up outside) will get into everything. They'll be up your trousers, down your top, on your head, legs, back, chest etc etc. They are lively, beautiful creatures, whose role in life is to sit there and look pretty. They are known as a "Lap" cat, but their behaviour resembles dogs quite closely. They are definitly family cats. we had one that would sit on the hoovers head as we pushed it back and forth, and enjoyed having it's tail "sucked" up the pipe extension. We had another that would sit on the toilet seat when my father shaved (using an electric shaver) and loved it if you would put the shaver (with the cover on) against his body. He would purr and purr.

I would recommend this one breed above all others. We also bred Norwegian Forest cats, and they can be charming, precocious cats.

We have also had Siamese cats, but I personally don't like the way these creatures have been bred for pointier and pointier heads.

Total Respect: +2