Ragdoll Cat Owners - please tell me all about them!

[rainbowtrout]

Wow, they are soooo exotic looking. Is he an F4? I had always wanted a Savannah one day but they are so incredibly expensive as kittens. How did you find yours? Is he "walkable" like they say?


My cat priorities had always been either a) an apple headed Siamese like my old cat or b) a Savannah ---and I didn't want to get either of them for another 3-5 years.


However, life throws you curveballs sometimes and I wouldn't trade Chen for anything

I do worry about him having vet bills or us arranging care for him if we have to go out of town. However he has pet insurance and being as cute as he is, our friends have always been willing to cat sit when we have to visit family or travel.


ETA: about the weekend question. When we had to leave to go to a funeral at the last minute we left Chen with two bowls of water and three bowls of food, and two clean litter boxes. He was just fine with us leaving Friday night and coming back Sunday night. I would ideally have liked someone to check on him, but it was OK. He didn't even finish all the food we left him. He DID crawl under the covers and sleep *between* us for about an hour when we got back, though.

 

[rainbowtrout]

I told Chen on Skype today that he is very much admired by PS. FI said he looked pleased, although this may have been because he discovered a way to open all the cabenets last night....

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Aloros: that pic of your Savannah took my breathg away! What a

face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cheers--Sharon

 

[Aloros]

Date: 4/26/2007 8:48:55 AM
Author: rainbowtrout
Wow, they are soooo exotic looking. Is he an F4? I had always wanted a Savannah one day but they are so incredibly expensive as kittens. How did you find yours? Is he ''walkable'' like they say?


My cat priorities had always been either a) an apple headed Siamese like my old cat or b) a Savannah ---and I didn''t want to get either of them for another 3-5 years.


However, life throws you curveballs sometimes and I wouldn''t trade Chen for anything

I do worry about him having vet bills or us arranging care for him if we have to go out of town. However he has pet insurance and being as cute as he is, our friends have always been willing to cat sit when we have to visit family or travel.


ETA: about the weekend question. When we had to leave to go to a funeral at the last minute we left Chen with two bowls of water and three bowls of food, and two clean litter boxes. He was just fine with us leaving Friday night and coming back Sunday night. I would ideally have liked someone to check on him, but it was OK. He didn''t even finish all the food we left him. He DID crawl under the covers and sleep *between* us for about an hour when we got back, though.

He''s an F3. He''s never had the greatest spotting in the world, but he is just so...weird looking! In a good way! He''s very lanky and lean, very long-legged. He''s got a little head in proportion to his body, and of course, his huge ears. Sometimes when he sits and looks at me, I really think he looks like a mini-serval.

I haunted the kittensavailable Yahoo! group for a few years. I didn''t intend to get him so soon (I''d been putting away some money for four years), but the breeder was selling all her cats, the price was right, and I fell in love with his little kitten picture. I was lucky, because I called the day after she posted, and he was the last boy left in the litter!

He''s definitely walkable. I think I posted some shots in the no dogs allowed thread of me taking him for a walk with a couple of my friend''s cats. He''s very trainable. Despite his exotic looks, it''s really his personality that makes him so awesome. Like Chen, he likes to get under the covers and cuddle. I compare his personality to a puppy. He''s always super-excited when I get home, very very affectionate, but he is also CRAZY! Gets into everything. I can''t leave anything remotely like food in his reach. He''s very curious. Loves to watch me doing things - cooking, cleaning, painting.

And to add to the weekend question - as long as you leave clean litterboxes and enough food, cats are fine on their own for a couple of days. I think putting out a couple of new toys, or at least ones they haven''t seen in a while, can help alleviate any boredom they might feel from not having you around.

 

[kcoursolle]

I know nothing about these cats, but I am loving the pics on this thread!!! Sooooo cute!!!!! Thanks for sharing gals!

 

[Lynn B]

OH! How fun to see this thread bumped!

Beautiful, beautiful cats! And CHEN is such a handsome Ragdoll! THANK YOU for sharing.

Weeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllll... guess what?! We got our own Ragdoll. Well, DD did, anyway.

Here's the story...
DD is getting married next month and asked to take our family cat (Buster) with her.

DH and I really didn't LIKE the idea (we love the little rascal to PIECES!) but HATED to say "no" to the daughter. (Buster is just a regular ol' dime-a-dozen "free-to-a-good-home" kind of a tabby cat... but we've had him since he was a baby, and he's beautiful and pampered and spoiled and we adore him!) But we also really adore the DD... so what's a mom and a dad to do?!

Soooooooooo... while we were mulling (agonizing!) over the whole situation, I found out about Ragdolls... got VERY intrigued, and thought, "Hmmmmmm... if we give Buster to DD, maybe a new cat, a Ragdoll for us, would be nice..." So I did my homework, found a (fairly) local breeder and yesterday we went (the three of us) to see the Ragdolls in person.

The breeder was wonderful, had 15 beautiful kittens from various litters, all the gorgeous parents... and while I LOVED every single one of them (they are indeed FABULOUS cats)... I just couldn't see a single one that could "stand in" for Buster, in my eyes. (And DH felt the same way). Quite a bummer and I was starting to feel a bit ill over the whole thing.

But guess what?! DD fell in love with one! Now THAT was an unexpected twist, and certainly not anything we had even considered. But it seemed like one little kitten just sort of "chose" her, and it was mutual love at first sight between them. So we did what we had to do...

we bought the Ragdoll for DD!

She is sooooooo excited! So now she can have her very own new little baby to raise in her new home with her new husband, can visit Buster often, and the two cats can hopefully spend a lot of time together and become great friends. And I still *win* because there'll be a Ragdoll in the family, and I'll get to watch her grow up and love her, too.

Life is very sweet and funny sometimes, isn't it?!

 

[Lynn B]

Date: 4/25/2007 7:17:18 PM
Author: FireGoddess

Date: 4/25/2007 5:14:59 PM
Author: rainbowtrout
Aww, thanks! His colors have really deepened in the last six months or so, he was almost totally white as a kitten.

The funniest thing: when I came back to visit a few weeks ago, I would be sitting on the couch, and suddenly, in MY tone of voice, I would hear FI say,

'Hello beautiful!'

So I would turn around, expecting to be hugged....and he was hugging the CAT! Chen looked pretty smug I gotta say.

LOL! When my dad calls me and he says 'how's my baby girl?'...he ain't talkin' about me either.

LOL!

One of Buster's favorite toys is a feather at the end of the stick. He LOVES it and will jump and purr and twist like a pretzel when we "play feather" with him.

WEEEELLLL... one day months ago I was in the kitchen and DD and her then-fairly-new BF were in the living room. Unbeknownst to them, DH and Buster both walked into the kitchen at the same time, and they heard me say, "Heeeellllloooooo, Handsome! Wanna play feather?!!" DD knew immediately who I was talking to, but apparently DBF was like:

 

[Aloros]

Yay! I''m glad everything has worked out so well for all of you!

Now...pics of the kitten!

 

[Lynn B]

Date: 4/26/2007 5:21:34 PM
Author: Aloros

...Now...pics of the kitten!

Duuuh, do you believe we didn''t get ANY pictures??!

BUT, we are going to try to get back down there next week to see the Baby again, and we will definitely get pictures THEN.

Sweet little munchkin won''t be old enough to come home till early June.

It''s gonna be hard to wait!

 

[Miranda]

That sounds great Lynn. Congratulations on your new grandcat!!!

 

[monarch64]

Aww, glad to hear there is a new addition to your family Lynn! Hopefully your daughter is taking lots of pics so you can share them with us, LOL!

 

[FireGoddess]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww kitty!!!!! I hope to see some pictures in the future of this fluffy baby.

 

[Miranda]

I have a new Ragdoll story for you today Lynn. Leo learned to ''shake''. Yes, like a dog...With his paw. We say, "Shake Leo" and he does it. It is sooooo cute. Our breeder says people have taught their Ragdoll''s to fetch, too. Your daughter is going to have so much fun with her new kitty.

 

[KittenKat]

Aww Lynn B. Your situation seems to have worked out for you. Your daughter will enjoy her baby so very much.

I am a raggy mom! Bear is just about the sweetest ''lil muffin I''ve ever met. He is always at my feet. And OMG he just loves to give kisses.

Miranda - How did you teach Leo to shake? That''s so cute!

 

[Miranda]

Date: 4/29/2007 6:05:12 PM
Author: KittenKat
Aww Lynn B. Your situation seems to have worked out for you. Your daughter will enjoy her baby so very much.

I am a raggy mom! Bear is just about the sweetest ''lil muffin I''ve ever met. He is always at my feet. And OMG he just loves to give kisses.

Miranda - How did you teach Leo to shake? That''s so cute!

Well, to say that the cat gets a lot of attention would be the understatement of the century. We are all kind of obsessed with him so with 5 of us around someone is always playing or snuggling with him. I am convinced he will evolve into a human. This is how the shaking thing started. Yesterday he was just batting at a toy and then he was batting at my hand. I noticed that he was putting his hand (I mean paw - see, I''m nutso for this cat) on top of my hand. After a while of intense (LOL) training it just morphed into I put my hand out, he puts his paw in my hand and we shake. I thought about using food to encourage it, but, he doesn''t really need to be encouraged to eat. He''s a bit of a pig.

Don''t you just love this breed? I have a friend at my son''t school that has one and gives soft kisses, too. I call Leo''s kisses ''kisses with his teeth'' they''re more like soft bites.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Miranda - that is too funny!! I would LOVE to see Leo doing his "shake." Our Oliver is a little pig as well - his favorite thing is Fage Greek yogurt, 2%, that I always give him a fingerful of when I open a new container. He LOVES it. Also, you probably already know this, but when they say they are big cats they aren''t kidding!! Our little Ollie, who was 2 lbs or so when we got him is now a whopping 12.5 lb monster at only 10 months old!! The vet was shocked - he''s not fat or anything, just HUGE! I''ve attached some recent pictures.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Sorry, can''t do more than one per post.

 

[AmberGretchen]

OK, just one more for now I promise - I took a ton of cute ones this weekend, and I just had to share. Lynn, I can''t WAIT to see pics of the new baby just added to your family!!

 

[AmberGretchen]

OK, sorry, just one more, to give sense of the scale - he''s going to be a monster!!

 

[FireGoddess]

Awwww, Ollie is so cute - and what a big fuzzy monster he is compared to his little baby pictures!!! *head bonk*

 

[AmberGretchen]

FG - he would LOVE to get more head bonks...he never gets enough, according to him! hehe...

Isn''t that amazing that that little tiny blue-eyed scrap of a cat with a tail the size of someone''s pinky finger has turned into that monster?!! And he''s only 10 months old...if he really is a ragdoll, they supposedly grow until they''re 4 years old!

 

[FireGoddess]

I can really, really see why they thought he was a Snowshoe at first, but that hair is definitely too long! He has all the same markings though.

Maybe most of that weight is hair.

 

[AmberGretchen]

FG - I can see it too. Apparently, the markings are the same/similar for ragdolls, and if you look at pictures of them, his head shape and everything and all the details like where his fur is longer and the paw tufts and everything are all match exactly all the descriptions I''ve found. Its so funny because we know absolutely nothing about his background - for all I know one parent was a snowshoe and the other was a long-hair and that''s how we got something that looks like him.

In any case, the weight is not all fur - the fur is magnificent, but he''s a substantial kitty already, and getting bigger every single day, I swear!!

 

[Miranda]

Oh my goodness Amber, I always love seeing pics of him. What a big love. He is a total Ragdoll! Down to his sweet little toe fur, which, I happen to adore. DH is constantly trying to trim it. I can''t imagine what would happen to Leo if I fed him yogurt. Let''s just say he has a *very* sensitive tummy.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Thanks Miranda - I loved seeing pics of your Leo - you should post some updated ones soon, he is such a beauty!!

I love the toe tufties too - they are just so tempting to play with when he''s napping, but he gets a little crabby...its so hard to resist though...

Ollie doesn''t get a large amount of yogurt AT ALL - its just the tip of one finger. What food are you feeding Leo? We have our kitties on Innova dry food and Merrick wet food, and have found this works well for sensitive tummies (Ollie has one too) we suspect because the ingredients are high quality and there are no grains and fillers.

 

[Sparkles22]

I don''t know much about the breed, but they are beautiful. I am definately a cat lover, and have converted hubby, who I think may be an even bigger cat lover now (he brought home the last one, making 4!)... I love to see pictures and threads about cats!!!!!

What does DD stand for? What about DH, see it alot, but not sure what it means... thanks!

 

[iheartscience]

Wow, everyone''s babies are PRECIOUS! The ragdolls are such a gorgeous breed! I love their beautiful blue eyes and their fluff!

And Sparkles22, DD means darling daughter and DH means darling husband. There are lots more variations on the D thing, too...DBF-darling boyfriend, DS-darling son, etc. There was actually a thread a little while ago translating PS/message board lingo. I forget what it was called, though...

 

[Sparkles22]

Date: 5/1/2007 1:16:35 AM
Author: thing2of2
Wow, everyone''s babies are PRECIOUS! The ragdolls are such a gorgeous breed! I love their beautiful blue eyes and their fluff!

And Sparkles22, DD means darling daughter and DH means darling husband. There are lots more variations on the D thing, too...DBF-darling boyfriend, DS-darling son, etc. There was actually a thread a little while ago translating PS/message board lingo. I forget what it was called, though...

Thanks!

It''s funny at our house we all our cats our kiddies (like kids, since we don''t have any any they are our babies)!

 

[diamondfan]

My hubby is allergic and so we cannot get a cat, but those ragdolls are amazingly gorgeous...and I love the snuggly cute nature too, Maya our dog has 5 people always kissing her playing with her laying with her and she thinks she is human too, and I love a cat that would interact that way! Congratulations to all of you with these great pets!

 

[rainbowtrout]

Oh my Ollie is gorrrgeous! I love the mink points...yummy. His color is really wonderfully deep for his age I think.


Miranda, I love the "shake" story!