The Birman is a strongly boned cat of good length, yet muscular and solid, with a distinctive head and ear set, firm chin and medium length Roman nose. The coat is long and silky, of a texture that does not mat. The colour is light, preferably with a golden cast as if dusted with gold. The face, legs and tail are “pointed” much like a Siamese or Himalayan, in colour and patterns based upon the primary colours of sealpoint, bluepoint, chocolatepoint and lilacpoint. There should be a strong definition between point colour and coat colour. In recent times, colour development within the breed has brought us redpoints and a range of tortiepoints, as well as cinnamonpoint and fawnpoint. All of these colours are now also possible in Lynx (Tabby) and Smoke varieties.

However the most distinctive colour feature is the ideally symmetrical white gloves on the front feet which in an ideal specimen cut across in an even line and the white gauntlets on the back feet which should spearhead at least half way up the hock. The challenge for the breeder of Birmans is to create a cat of notable type with the correct colour and markings all in the one specimen, not an easy feat!

The Birman has a gentle but playful disposition, is quiet but funloving and is an ideal companion cat for any household.

The Breed is extremely popular in New Zealand, where it has attained an enviable public profile due to the hard work of breeders working within the Birman Specialist Clubs established for the promotion and preservation of the breed. This success has carried through to the Cat Show circuit, where Birman cats have triumphed in Championship and attained the highest honour possible, that of BEST CAT nationally. The quality of New Zealand Birmans is recognised world-wide and many excellent specimens have been exported to all corners of the globe.

When the temple was subsequently attacked, Mun-Ha was killed and at the moment of his death, the faithful Sinh stood with all feet upon his master and faced the goddess Tsun-Kyan-Kse. Immediately, the cat’s fur took on a golden mist, his eyes turned as blue as those of Tsun-Kyan-Tse and his face and legs became the colour of earth. However, where his paws touched his master Mun-Ha, they became as white as snow. It is said that all the other temple cats were likewise affected and that seven days later, Sinh died, “taking with him the soul of Mun-Ha to paradise”.

Mystery also surrounds the modern history of the Birman Cat. We do know that circa 1919 a pair of Birman cats were taken from Burma to France. The male did not survive the journey, but the female, who was pregnant, did. From this very meagre beginning, the Birman had its foundation in the west as a modern breed. The breed was subsequently recognised by the French as a separate breed in 1925. However by the end of World War II, the breed was almost obliterated and a program of outcrossing to re-establish the breed began. Most registries required at least 4 or 5 generations of pure breeding after outcrossings before fully accrediting the cats for championship competition. Birmans were eventually recognised by the GCCF in 1966.

The origin of the Ragdoll is believed to date from around the early 1960’s with a loving white longhaired cat of gentle disposition and mixed ancestry named Josephine. This notable cat carried the genes for producing pointed markings.

Josephine was a free roaming Angora-like cat that bred at will and was very lucky to have survived a bad accident. Despite the accident, Josephine continued to give birth to happy healthy kittens, which greatly impressed the people they came into contact with. They soon discovered that the kittens grew to be very sturdy, and had a “remarkably relaxed disposition”, a true loving nature, beautiful blue eyes and long, non-matting fur.

A beautiful Birman lookalike male cat was one of the sires of Josephine’s kittens. A handsome black Burmese lookalike male was another, plus she had several additional kittens by other, undetermined non-pedigree sires.

Josephine’s owner, California breeder Ann Baker, realised that Josephine’s kittens were somewhat special and selected those from which she could produce the look she wished to preserve for the breeding programme that was developing in her mind. The kittens with the desired traits were therefore retained and carefully line bred to keep the strain pure and to fix the type standard for the emerging “Ragdoll” breed. This somewhat eccentric and entrepreneurial breeder even took out a patent on the new breed so that other breeders wishing to breed from her lines, had to do so under licence by paying a royalty fee for every kitten produced and sold.

The name “Ragdoll” came about because of what appeared to be the cat’s unique ability to relax like a child’s toy rag doll. Today, ALL Ragdolls must be descendents of Josephine and her progeny and over the years no other strain of Persian, Burmese or Birman was allowed to be reintroduced into the lines. However that did not always remain the case, with a few breeders introducing an outcross to bring new colour varieties to the breed. Although there is variation in pattern, the breed is renown for its uniformity of disposition.

Ragdoll kittens are born white and their true colour is not fully developed until they are about 2 years of age, usually maturing at approximately 3 years of age. Neutered males weigh approximately 5 to 9 kilograms, females on average about 2 kilograms less. Their fur is rabbit like, medium to long and very easy to care for.

Ragdoll cats are large well-balanced cats with no extreme features. The head forms a broad equilateral triangle, modified by a gentle rounded muzzle. Their bodies form a long rectangle, are broad and solid with “medium to heavy” bone structure. They have long legs and a long well plumed tail.

Ragdoll cats have wonderful personalities: they are loving, placid and easy going and as such they make wonderful house or apartment cats. They are intelligent and can easily be trained. They have a unique temperament, usually sweet and docile – and are not fighters by nature. They show many characteristics usually attributed to dogs, including devotion to their owners. They like to sleep on one’s feet, or following their owner about the house as well as flopping on their owner at every opportunity. Ragdolls invariably display the unique characteristic of going limp in your arms when picked up and they seem to enjoy being held like a baby. They are usually floor cats, preferring to purr or call with soft musical voices rather than yowl. For all these reasons they make ideal pets for children, or companion cats for the elderly. They also mix well with dogs and other pets.

Ragdolls come in three basic patterns:
Colourpoint - Point coloured mask to the face, point coloured ears, feet, and tail. A colourpoint has no white whatsoever.
Mitted - Point coloured mask, ears, tail and legs, with white mittens on the front feet and short white boots on the back feet. White on chin, ruff and stomach.
Bi-Colour - White inverted “V” in the mask,
white legs, feet, ruff and stomach.
Point coloured ears and tail.

The Ragdoll patterns come in six basic colours, seal, blue, chocolate, lilac, red and cream. The points may be solid, tortie and/or lynx.