lovable cats for lovable people
How it started...
hough I always loved all
kinds of animals, I was more a dog person until 1986 when a
German magazine published an article on a brand new breed of
cats - the Ragdoll. I looked at the fascinating photos, I
read the interesting breed information and it hit me like a
flash - suddenly I knew this is the cat for us!
 |
Chayene at 9 weeks
|
nfortunately
it wasn't so easy to get a kitten. At that time Ragdolls were
a rarity over here and though we had no special preferences
regarding color, pattern or sex, it took almost a year until
we were able to "adopt" our very first cat, a
lovely seal bicolor girl named "Raggy's Chayene".
Chayene and our dog "Sandy", a 4 year old English
Cockerspaniel (see her photo in the Baby Gallery), went along wonderfully and we were hooked!
e had purchased Chayene as a
pet and so she had to be spayed. But showing her was always a
wonderful experience, though the breed wasn't recognized by
our cat association FIFe yet. The judges just loved her and
we were able to learn a lot about cats and Ragdolls. It was
such a pleasure to meet other Ragdoll enthusiasts at shows,
and promoting the breed was simply fun.
|
| Chayene at 5 years |
hayene
was one of the four Bicolors presented to the FIFe
board in Estoril, Portugal, when the FIFe-members voted for
recognition of the Ragdoll breed. After recognition Chayene
proved to be extremely successful in the show hall, and she
was the first female Ragdoll to earn a FIFe European-title and the very first FIFe World Winner title for the Ragdoll breed.
Chayene was pictured in countless national and international
cat magazines, calendars and books. One day Chayene's "favourite"
judge told me about a small oil painting
of Chayene she had spotted in an art gallery by
chance. Of course I had to have it and it got a place of
honor in our home.
n the beginning we had absolutely no
intentions of starting a cattery. But after purchasing
another Ragdoll in 1990 (yes, beware - Ragdolls ARE addictive!!!)
we changed our mind. Actually we had wanted only a second
Ragdoll we could show, but
"Kirsty" came
with breeding rights and we just could not resist the
temptation...
The very first Ciara's litter was born in 1992
(Ciara is an Irish girl's name - I love anything Irish! -
and short for
CAT
IS
A RAGDOLL....).
But our first "real" breeder became
"Campiroi's Yashica",
a blue-mitted girl with dark blue eyes and gentle disposition
from Switzerland.
Except as noted all text, photos and design
by Renate Wald. Illustrations made by and/or purchased from Lallas C.ountrystyle, R. Wald & C.ountry Patch C.ollections. My heartfelt
gratitude goes to Patricia and Frej Krook for editing. All images, text and content within this website are subject to copyright laws. Without my or the respective artist's written consent the reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium is prohibited. Disclaimer
