The “traditional” ragdoll that most people recognize is a medium haired, blue-eyed kitty with a pale body, dark face, ears, legs and tail and is described as being “pointed”. This coat color pattern is the result of the RECESSIVE Siamese gene (cs) and it requires both parents to carry this gene in order to pass it on to their offspring. This is a recessive gene in the cat and therefore to have a cat with “points” the kitty must have two copies of the cs gene. Pointed traditional Ragdoll cats are produced by parents with the genotype of cscs. So, if both Ragdoll parents are cscs, then 100% of the kittens will be traditional. A traditional cscs cat bred to a cbcs mink Ragdoll will produce 50% traditional kittens. A combination of cbcs, or two mink Ragdoll parents mated, will produce 25% traditional kittens. A solid (Ccs) Ragdoll to a traditional (cscs) will produce 50% traditional kittens. A solid (Ccs) Ragdoll bred to a mink (cbcs) Ragdoll will produce 25% traditional kittens. With only one, or no copies of this gene, the cat will have pigmentation over the whole body and is considered a “solid” colored cat (CC or Ccs).

When Ann Baker bred Josephine to create pointed kittens, along with solid kittens, the female had to possess the colorpoint gene (C cs) and the father did as well. The father of Daddy Warbucks HAD to be either a solid carrying the Siamese gene (C cs), a mink (cscb), or a pointed (cscs) cat.

What Ann clearly states is that Blackie and Daddy Warbucks are both sons of Josephine, but with different sires. In the IRCA booklet it would appear to indicate that Blackie’s father was a ‘black cat from the East’, that appeared ‘more Persian than Burmese’. During detailed questioning, Ann confirmed that no-one had ever seen the father of Daddy Warbucks, and he was the only kitten in that particular litter of Josephine’s. (Wallace, et. al.).

According to Blanche Herman, a breeder who initially worked with Baker, stated that Ann Baker bred both Persians and Apple Head Balinese cats and would use both in her program, as indicated in letters from Baker to Herman. Persians can be solid, as well as pointed, and can exhibit the bicolor pattern. Balinese cats are for the most part blue-eyed pointed cats, in traditional and mink, that have been known to produce mitts. Perhaps, Baker left the true history of the parents of the kittens a mystery on purpose. The amount of time, rumination, and prediction spent upon her highly publicized claims certainly provided a massive amount of commentary (free advertising) and made her cats both well known and sought after over the course of almost fifty years. The following is from the Ragdoll HIstorical Society:

It is important to note that the light side/dark side designation had nothing to do with coat color. Ann Baker claimed that the light side cats had a little longer noses and longer sharper ears like the Balinese. The dark side cats grew to look more like the Himalayan with a broader face, shorter ears, stockier build etc. Ann claimed that others looked like the sacred Cat of Burma and that the 7th generation Ragdolls would all look like Kyoto who was a seal mitted as was his father, Daddy Warbucks. Ann believed the light side cats were wonderful pets and seemed to have a little more of the desired disposition than the dark side cats. Ann felt that you needed to breed one from each side to get that real Ragdoll look.

Ann Baker claimed that she bred only seal Ragdolls for the first 7 years. However, she contradicted this by writing that the first lilac (which was actually a blue) was Thumper Jr. born 4/27/69. So how did Ann get the lilac/blue? She claimed that she got them by using a reversal process with the original mother, and from this a beautiful true lilac color was developed. This process was so successful, that the same process was tried on the dark side of the original three, and a black point was developed. She claimed that there would never be a blue or chocolate point.

You have to keep in mind that when Ann started working on developing the Ragdoll breed, she was at the time working with her black Persians and apple head lilac Balinese. In two letters sent to Blanche Herman she told Blanche about her experimental lilac program using her apple head Balinese. Later she claimed to Blanche that someone had stolen all her lilac Balinese because they thought that they were getting Ragdolls. She said that 95% of the lilac experimental program that she was breeding were born with kinks in their tails. She asked Blanche not to tell anyone about her outcross program to bring in the lilac color. She felt that the lilac/blue Ragdolls were on the extreme light side. She claimed that in her conflict with the Daytons her lilac program was her ace in the hole. (Pearce 2011).

Ragdolls designated as 100% TRADITIONAL , consist of seal, blue, chocolate, and lilac without the mink (except Mike McDonald), solid, sepia, lynx, or red factor in the pedigree lines. Likewise, Ragdolls that are 100% ORIGINAL follow those same parameters (with the exception of the foundation cats); however, they do not have any outcrosses to any other breed(s) in their pedigrees (solely Ragdolls) and they are FULLY traceable to ANN BAKER’S original foundation cats:  Josephine, Blackie, and Beauty.

Based upon both history, and simple genetics, the “Traditional” pointed Ragdoll cats would not be in existence without the foundation of solid cats and/or minks. They were produced from recessive genes, and mutations, or an abnormality, at that! To outright refuse to acknowledge them as the foundation and part of the Ragdoll breed is both preposterous and absolutely unconscionable. This would be comparable to me making the decision to reject my Italian ancestry over my German bloodlines because I look German and do not express any of my Italian features–ludicrous!

To be extremely specific, the pointed coat color pattern is recessive and is an error in the production of the enzyme tyrosinase. Point coloration in cats is a form of partial albinism resulting from a mutation in tyrosinase, an enzyme involved with melanin production. The mutated enzyme is heat-sensitive; it fails to work at normal body temperatures, but becomes active in cooler areas of the skin.The Tyrosinase (TYR) gene, also known as the Color gene, produces an enzyme that is required for melanin production. Mutations in TYR have been associated with temperature-sensitive pigment production that results in colors known as Burmese and Siamese. As a result, dark pigment is limited to the coldest areas of the body, that is, the extremities. Pointed kittens are born white, since the womb is uniformly warm. As the kitten ages, the cooler areas darken while warmer areas remain cream to white in color. Points are not limited to solid colors or dark colors. It is possible to have a red (orange color) or fawn (pale warm gray) point. It is also possible to have a tortoiseshell or tabby point. This coloration is also called pointed.

Again, this Siamese pointed gene is a dilution gene, meaning that an error has occurred in the responsible gene (the dominant albino C gene) that interferes with the ability to produce pigment. This is an interesting mutation in that the chemical reaction that allows for the production of the final pigment product, is dependent upon the temperature of the environment. The extremities of the cat’s body (ears, tail, paws, scrotum in males), typically, have a lower skin temperature than skin that is located over the heat-generating muscle masses. The ability to produce the normal compliment of color pigment is inhibited by the increase in skin temperature over the muscle masses of the body and effectively dilutes coat color.

This dilution gene also interferes with pigment production in the iris of the eye. With a minuscule amount of pigment in the iris, the cat’s eyes appear blue. Solid colored cats do have normal amounts of pigment present in the iris and, therefore, DO NOT have the same blue eyes expressed in pointed cats. There is a separate gene that can cause aqua eye color in solid cats, but this is not the same “blue” that is seen in a pointed cat. Because of this restriction of pigment, pointed cat’s eyes are always some shade of blue, because the top layer of the iris is not covered in another color, letting the blue show through. The back of the eye also lacks pigment, giving these cats’ pupils a red reflection in the dark, unlike a normally pigmented cat’s green to copper shine.

Traditional Ragdoll cats, like the nontraditional Ragdoll cats, inherit the genes for producing a specific amount of pigment, or melanin, in their eyes. Traditional Ragdolls carry the Siamese gene mutation, so they do not have enough pigment to achieve green to the rich copper colored eyes of their counterparts. The eyes of all Traditional Ragdoll cats have only tiny amounts of melanin, so their eyes are saturated with light that cause them to appear blue instead of exhibiting coloration or pigment. Their eyes, therefore, appear pale blue to deep cobalt blue. To enlarge and view the image below, click on the eye color chart for cats created by Sarah Hartwell: