The History of Ragdolls in CFA

by Wain Pearce

(Note: This history is based on actual records, correspondence in the Ragdoll World and the RAG sheet as well as the author's personal knowledge of events having been a founding member of RAG.)

There may have been earlier attempts to get our Ragdolls into CFA, but the earliest that I could find a recorded record of was in 1981.  Denny Dayton (Blossom Time cattery) records in Dec 81 Vol 5 #4 that he made a presentation to CFA in 1981 and that CFA flatly rejected the Ragdoll.  He states that he felt that he had made a poor presentation and had not been fully prepared.  He also felt that CFA was, at that time, feeling what he called the "Ann Baker syndrome."

In 1986, the Ragdoll Fanciers Club (RFC) Breed Chair, Dorthy Metcalf, worked actively toward getting the Ragdoll accepted into CFA.  This effort continued on into 1988 when Susan Bugdin showed 3 Ragdolls in CFA in Melbourne Florida: Abigail, Atlas, & Elijah Blue.  Pralines & Creme was shown in Dayton, Ohio by Kathleen Grischy.  Blance Herman & Glena Spaulding showed several of their Ragdolls in Chicago, Illinois.  Glena also showed two lovely Ragdolls in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

These early breeders worked hard for acceptance of our Ragdolls in CFA and while they may have failed, they laid a foundation within CFA that we have continued to build upon.

In 1992, two Ragdoll breeders, Gail Nettles in Canada and Lou Ann Armstrong in Florida began working toward making a presentation of our Ragdolls to CFA.  They wanted to make as strong a presentation to CFA as possible and sought the help of as many Ragdoll breeders as possible.  On February 13, 1993, they made their presentation and the Ragdolls were accepted.  Gail Nettles with Pat Steckman & JaNeill Cillessen made the presentation.

The following is a direct quote from Gail Nettles from her letter that was sent out to those who had supported the effort to gain acceptance in CFA for the Ragdoll.

“Although the CFA Executive Board voted to recognize all 3 patterns, they did make it very clear that they would prefer to see mostly Bicolor Ragdolls.  We went in asking just for the Bicolor, and CFA rewarded us with all 3 patterns.”  

On May 1, 1993, the Ragdolls were officially allowed to be shown in the Miscellaneous class.

In 1993, Gail Nettles founded the Ragdolls of America Group to be a CFA Ragdoll breed club.  There were two classes of membership, voting and non-voting.  To be a voting member you had to own at least one Ragdoll and have shown at least one Ragdoll in a minimum of  3 CFA shows in the past 12 months.

In 1994, Gail Nettles wrote an article in the RFCI Ragdoll World that "because of various reasons  (mostly political by the Birmans) that effective May 1, 1994 the Mitted & Colorpoints could no longer be shown in Miscellaneous class but could still be shown in Exhibition class."  She stated that we would still be allowed to register all 3 patterns in CFA.

Shortly after Gail Nettles announced that the Ragdoll Breeders would not be able to show their colorpoints and Mitteds in CFA after May 1, 1994 she received a letter from Thomas Dent Executive Director for CFA that the ban was effective immediately.  Our Colorpoints & Mitted have been "Exhibition Only" ever since.

According to my records, Pam Wilson was the first President of RAG with Gail Nettles serving as Breed Chair and Editor of the RAG Sheet.

History of Presidents of RAG

Pam Wilson ......................................1993-1994
Kathy Cassidy ..................................1995-1996
David Zabel................................Dec 1996-Jan 1997
Kathy Cassidy resigned in Dec and David served until the end of January 1997 when he also resigned and the Vice President, Valentine Janet Meriwether, became President.
Valentine Janet Meriwether...................1997-1999
Joan Ludwig.......................................2000-2005

In November, 1993, the Ragdolls made their first appearance at the CFA International show in Nashville Tennessee.  JaNeil Cillessen brought her blue bicolor female, Dolly, and Camma Roberts brought a seal bicolor female and a blue bicolor male to the show. To the best of my knowledge, our Ragdolls have been represented at every CFA International show since.

For the first season in CFA (1993-94), year end awards were offered by RAG for Ragdolls shown in CFA's Miscellaneous Class during the season.  Each of the following Ragdolls received a Certificate of Merit for their achievement.  The Winners were:

1. Katsdoll Aladdin owned and bred by Kathy Cassidy.  Aladdin is a seal bicolor

2/3.   A tie between TLC Marco Polo (a blue bicolor) & TLC Calamity Jane (seal bicolor) both owned and bred by Pat Steckman.

4.  There was a three way tie for 4th place. RagsNroses Michaelangelo, a seal mitted; Cinnamon, a seal colorpoint; and Melody, a seal mitted, all three owned and bred by Wain & Jeanne Pearce.

In 1996, as time for the CFA International show approached a crisis arose as the Ragdolls were again invited, but it appeared that no one would be able to go and no Ragdolls would be at the show.  At the last moment, a young California Ragdoll Breeder named David Zabel stepped forward and offered to recruit as many Ragdolls as he could and to attend the International as the Ragdoll representative. David not
only recruited a number of beautiful Ragdolls for the show, but also paid for and set up a beautiful Ragdoll Breed Booth display.  David did a lot of groundwork that weekend presenting the Ragdoll to one of the CFA Committees and also made a lot of important connections with CFA people.

The year 1997 was an important one for the Ragdolls.  While RAG had existed since 1993, it wasn’t until 1997 that RAG sent in an applications to CFA and was accepted as an official Ragdoll Breed Club.  President Janet Meriwether stated in her message to the RAG members that "the new RAG Board had spent hours upon hours writing a Constitution and By-laws that was in accordance with CFA."  This she said was "in preparation for RAG to apply to the CFA Board to advance our Ragdoll Colorpoints to Provisional class after five years as Miscellanous.”

“In order for the Ragdoll to go before the CFA Board they had to be sponsored by an official club member-the RAG.  No official club means no sponsor to the Board and therefore,  no recogntion for the breed.”

In 1998, the first presentation to advance the Ragdoll Bicolors to Provisional was made to CFA on Feb 7, 1998, in Houston, Texas.  The presentation by RAG was successful and the Ragdolls were advanced to Provisional effective May 1, 1998.  CFA also approved the Van pattern for Provisional as well.

In 1999, the first attemp to advance the Bicolors and Vans to Championship in CFA was defeated.  For those in RAG it was a terrible disappointment, but in talking to many people within CFA there was great hope that 2000 would be the year of the Ragdolls.

 From an article by Judy Kay Halsey taken from the RAG Breed Club Newsletter September 1999:  “We had 11 Ragdolls in attendance housed in cream brocade cage curtains.   On top of each cage was a spray of red roses and willows. We looked very professional.  In the midst of these Ragdolls we had borrowed a Birman, thats right a Birman.  We feel so strongly that our Ragdolls are completely different, that we invited the Board members to compare them together, feature by feature.  They seemed impressed by this.  We lost by a very narrow margin.” (9-8)

In 2000, another attempt was made to advance the Ragdoll Bicolors and Vans to Championship, and this time the Stars fell on the Ragdolls.  They were accepted for Championship effective May 1, 2000.

In February 2002, the first attempt to advance the Ragdoll Colorpoints to AOV was summited by Judy Kay Halsey.  It was ruled out of order and no vote was taken.  At the October 2001 meeting of the Executive Board, there had been a long debate as to whether the Ragdoll did mimic the Birman.  A poll had been taken of the Birman Breed Council members, and they had voted overwhelmingly against the Ragdoll Colorpoints being advanced to AOV.  Fred Jaccobergger stated that if both the Ragdoll & Birman Breed Councils approve to advance the Ragdoll colorpoints by 60% margin, the CFA Board had the right to consider the advancement.  Otherwise, the question was out of order.  Liz Watson asked, "That means that the Birman Breed Council has control over the Ragdoll Breed that does not look like it at all?"  Fred Jacobberger replied, "That is correct."

In 2004, Another attempt was made to advance the Colorpoints to AOV and the minutes of this meeting are available on the Ragdoll Breed Club website.  The Colorpoint proposal was defeated by 12-5 vote with 2 members abstaining.  Thus, the work to advance our Colorpoints to AOV will continue.

In 2004, a second CFA Ragdoll club, Ragdoll Breed Club (RBC), was started.  RBC was opened to membership in September 2004 and within 5 weeks not only had 45 members, but had members in all 8 CFA Regions including Japan and Europe.  These were predominatly new people to CFA since there was only a 25% overlap of membership with RAG.  RBC was unaminously approved by the CFA Board at their February 2005 Board meeting in Houston, Texas.

Author's Note:
The narrative above brings us up to date on the History of the Ragdolls in CFA, but I would like to add one final note.  I would like to pay honor to a lady who contributed as much to the success of the Ragdoll in CFA as any person that I know of.  While we honor Judy Kay Halsey, who is certainly deserving of all the accolades that have been given to her, there is another lady who justly deserves the same honor for her contributions to the Ragdoll in CFA.  Her name is Gail Nettles.  I would like to share her story with you. 

The following is taken from the October 1996 RAG Newsletter:

Gale Nettles writes that she attended her first CFA show in 1990 and at that time the Ragdolls were not exactly welcome in the CFA shows.  She states, "I found two shows that welcomed me and more that snubbed me.  I decided that it was time that the Ragdoll was accepted for show status at CFA shows.  I was told that it couldn’t be done.  To which I replied I’ll have to find out for my self.  After spending a year finding out what CFA wanted (paperwork-wise) for us to be considered as a Miscellaneous Breed (the first step in a long process).  I started calling Ragdoll breeders all over the country.  I finally got connected with Lou Ann Armstrong in Canada and between the two of us, we got all the necessary paperwork in order and mailed to CFA in the fall of 1992."

Gail continues, "In February, 1993 in San Diego California I, along with JaNeil Cillessen & Pat Steckman, presented our Ragdolls to the CFA Board.  We explained why we were enough different to be considered apart from the Birman & Himalayan.  The CFA Board was tough, but fair and they unanimously voted to allow the Ragdoll Miscellanous status.  There were a few minor details to be worked out.  First CFA would not allow the RFCI as it’s official breed club, as the RFCI was affiliated with ACFA and TICA, nor would CFA accept the Ragdoll World as its newsletter.  Thus I started RAG and the RAG Sheet, which are affiliated solely with CFA."

According to Gail, "Next the unpleasantness between the Birman and the Ragdoll people resulted in a ruling from CFA that only the Bicolor could be shown in Miscellaneous class, although the Mitted and Colorpoint Ragdolls could still be registered in CFA.  (They had originally accepted all three patterns)."

"So what have I been up to since 1993?  Besides being the Breed Chair and Editor of the RAG Sheet I was elected President of the RFCI in 1995 when disaster struck, I found that I was allergic to CATS.  It took a trip to the hospital before I faced the fact that cats were making me very ill.  Sadly I gave up my role as a breeder."

"I feel thankful to have been able to share my home and life with one very special breed."

~ Gail Nettles