Ragdoll cattery
The Living Dolls
Welcome on the site of the oldest ragdoll Cattery of Belgium.
Established in `95 as one of the first Belgian Ragdoll catteries.From in the beginning we only work with the original old Ragdoll line which we now have still in our Cattery.
Since my youth I was fascinated by the Ragdoll breed , which was then still very unknown and of which one only could read in the illustrated magazines. At last after a long and difficult search of almost 2 years (Internet was not yet popular in that time) could I buy my first Ragdoll. These were of American lines and one of first Bi-colors in Belgium, the kittens which are born from here were first Bi-colors born in Belgium.
You must understand that in the years ’94 and ‘95 the Ragdoll breed was unknown and not so popular yet in Belgium, for this reason it was also very difficult to get the correct information about the colors, varieties and the origin of this loving breed.
From at the start of my cattery I did my best to keep or get old type of Ragdoll back such as these initially was breed by Ann Baker, namely as a breed of large, heavy and very sweet, loving and quiet cats. Finding the old Ragdoll line was not so difficult but finding a cattery which who still worked with these lines was almost impossible, after a long search and using books and the new internet I found a cattery in the United Kingdom how became our friends in the years after.
Our English friends have the oldest working Ragdoll line in the world and after a couple friendly visits I could obtain there my first kitten. When we went to take here with us our friends had so beautiful kittens that we decided take two more to our house. All these kittens are still from 8th or 9ste generation from Josephine, my stud boy which I afterwards also got from our friends is even from an older line.
On advise of our friends I could adopted a couple Ragdolls from an English Cattery who stopped with there Ragdolls and I got the luck that the Ragdolls where from a old American line how is no family of my other Ragdolls.
Also from at the start of my cattery I was fascinated by the lighter colors such as chocolate and lilac. After deeper research of my ragdoll line and by my training as a judge I have got a better insight in the genetic of the cat and I used this in my breeding programme. This process to try to recover the colors by means of combination of the different old lines and without in breeding of other breeds is very time-consuming. This is they reason that my breeding programme have cost my almost 8 years to get both the colors ( Lilac and Choc) without losing the type and with the possibility to reproduce it .
For this reason we are also very proud that we can say that we were the first breeder in Europe with Chocolate and Lilac Ragdolls of the old original lines and that we can reproduce these color. More about these colors you find in the part of our site that is dedicated entirely to these colors.
With my old lines and my breeding program I hope to contribute to a better en stable Ragdoll breed and to get them and keep them in there old glory. Because our cattery is one of the last catteries whit these old and original Ragdolls lines we do every thing possible to keep them like that, for this reason we are also very selective in selling kittens.
I find it personally better to make new friends when we sell a kitten than that we have “customers”.
Because I concentrated my breeding program in the last years on getting Chocolate and Lilac Ragdolls I have less eye for the varieties, for this reason I’m now concentrating my program on getting the beautiful big Bi-colors again such as Don Diego of The living Dolls how you find in our picture gallery.
When U want more information about this beautiful breed or you want to now about our kittens feel free to mail us or visit our kitten page.
We hope you enjoy you visit of our site.
Greetings,
Dirk and Kristel.
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