History of Ragdoll Cats in the Czech Republic
At the beginning of the breeding of Ragdolls in the Czech Republic is Mrs. Vladěna Frausová. She imported from the USA to her kennel Berberis (Latin for barberry) at the beginning of the nineties a male Chubby Tuftytoes, seal mitted and cats Pippy Kan-Du, seal colourpoint and Kan-Du Cutie also seal colourpoint. Their ancestors are registered with RFCI, as evidenced by a 1993 genetic card. Ancestry can be traced back to the founders of the breed Daddy Warbucks, Josephine, Barma and Birma.
These were very high quality individuals with beautiful deep eye color, excellent temperament and a sufficiently broad genpool. Also the contrast of colouration of the badges and other body coverings was very well expressed in them. The fault of the line was and is that there are individuals with a defect on the last tail vertebra. It was not until genetic testing in 2008 and 2009 that some of the founder cats were found to carry the gene implicated as causative of HCM in Ragdolls. However, the survival time of ragdolls with the N/HCM genotype ranges from 12 years to 17.5 years without any health problems (NCHK studbook records).
Imported ragdolls were registered in the studbook of the SCHK, then still CSCH, in 1992. In 1993 they had their first offspring. Unfortunately, apart from these ragdolls, there were no other representatives of the breed in the Czech Republic for a long time. The coefficients of relatedness climbed to 15 percent or more, while German breeders (IG Ragdoll - author's note) with a relatively broad breeding base reached maximum coefficients of about 6 percent. (The coefficient of relatedness is a number that indicates the percentage of genes of a common ancestor or multiple ancestors in the paternal and maternal half of the pedigree).
Further development took two different paths. The first was the importation of animals from abroad, which began in the late 1990s and is of course still continuing. These include the import of IC.Elsterland´s Frisco, blue colourpoint, registered in SCHK in 1999, Filius zum Spitzhaus, blue colourpoint, registered there in 2002 and especially the import of blue colourpoint, now EC Kiwimagic Pride of New Zealand to Eulalie kennel. Other imports from Germany, Holland followed, especially the blue bicolour lynx Le Petit Chebela´s Miss Tiger Lilly, from Canada - Ragalong Keira, blue bicolour and Ragalong Amelie, blue mitted, as well as imports from USA. Unfortunately, more willingness to cooperate would be needed for a detailed history of the imports.
The second way, quite discussed among breeders, was to start outcross breeding of Ragdolls. It was started in 1998 by the Independent Breeders Club, specifically by the Síh kennel. Three basic lines were created (later expanded by a fourth), the first one in 1998 mated a white orange-eyed Persian male Clark from Skalicek with Naomi Berberis, seal colourpoint, the second one in 2002 a Siberian black male Ch. Igor Sinova,CZ with a flair for acromelanic colouring also with Naomi Berberis , the third one from 2004, when the mated animal was Baltazar Modrý Šafrán, Siberian male red colourpoint with Matti Síh cats, ragdoll seal colourpoint and Naomi Berberis (this line became extinct due to neutering of the animals) and in the fourth, originally from 2000 , when Aron from Helam, RAG n 04 33 was mated with Eli z Regaty, PER g 03 . This was due to the situation in 1998 and early 2002, when the re-bred Ragdolls were dying very young and imports seemed to be in sight. The documents for interbreeding were processed for a long time. It was based on information about mating breeding in other cat species in the UK, the history of the breed's origins, when interbreeding also occurred between breeds (or individuals similar in appearance to a particular breed) and the history of the origins of breeds and their colour varieties in general. We got a lot of information from ten years of Ragdoll News magazine, sent to us free of charge by Mrs. V. Frausova and from four more years of the same magazine, sent free of charge by IG Ragdoll. With the massive spread of internet use and the digitization of PPs, it is obvious that mating of other breeds has occurred all over the world, as can be seen in the Ragdoll PPs in the Pawpeds International Database (click on the "Foundation" icon when opening the PP). Although there are so-called pure lines, many other lines are influenced by the mating of Persian cats (Oh Mellow so Lonerock and others), Birmans, Domestic Cats, Siamese and Balinese cats. Home (pawpeds.com)
A perfect knowledge of genetics was essential. It was definitely a longer journey than the import route, and less financially interesting, as many kittens were sold as pets and companions or donated, and only animals matching the type of ragdolls made it into breeding. The first ragdoll with red markings was shown at the NCHK show in May 2001, where the first mating breeding of ragdolls took place.
From this first "Persian" line were born ragdolls in 2005 and then in the beginning of 2006, where the Persian ancestor is already in the fifth and sixth generation. They were kittens from litters "X" and "B", including two males with red markings, Bartemius Síh and Bruno Síh.
From the second line in 2005 were born ragdolls with Siberian ancestry in the grandparent generation - litter "Y". The foreign breed was always used only once in those 5 generations.
Ragdolls that do not have all four generations of ragdoll only ancestors are not currently registered in the SCHK studbooks, their pedigrees are valid only in the NCHK.
In the NCHK, the pure lineage of Ragdolls from which IC descended was kept in parallel with these three lines. Valentine Síh, seal colourpoint and his siblings, Vittorio Síh, seal colourpoint, Vicky Helen Síh and Vaffer Síh, also seal colourpoints.
Both ragdolls from mating breeding and ragdolls from so-called pure lines have worked and are working in the field of felinotherapy, Animal Assisted Intervention.
Importation is beneficial if we know the background of the breeding - i.e. diseases occurring in the ancestors and descendants, possible anomalies, tendency to certain diseases, but certainly also the degree of ancestral relationship in the pedigree of the imported individual. It is beneficial if as many offspring as possible are used in the breeding and not only the title animals are used.
Mating breeding is beneficial under the same conditions. Let us leave for the time being the disputes about the "purity of the legend called ragdoll", which, as we have seen ourselves, had in the pedigrees at the beginning of its origin quite prosaic crosses or unidentified individuals of questionable origin.
On 26th November 2006 in Mladá Boleslav, after almost twenty years of ragdoll breeding in our country, the Middle-Earth Interest Club was founded under the auspices of NCHK. The name of the club (translated as Middle-Earth) is to symbolize the effort to cooperate with Ragdoll breeders' clubs abroad, to renew meaningful breeding focused on the improvement of the breed with regard to its phenotype as well as its vitality and health. It is meant to symbolize the joy of living together with our feline companions and passing it on to those in need - the elderly, children and the handicapped. The founding members of the Middle-Earth Club have agreed that some of the kittens they raise will bear the names of people, animals and places from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. This follows the tradition of the original American (and Czech) breeders who named their kennels and litters after plants and flowers. That is why in the NCHK PP you can meet Eowyn, Galadriel, Aragorn, Faramir, Evenstar and they come from the kennels Baby Doll from Rivendell, Of Gondor, Of Ithilien and others.
Notice :
PP, PPs - pedigrees
