The story of one breed, two names, and sixty years of controversy

If you’ve been researching Ragdoll cats recently, you may have stumbled across the word “Cherubim” and wondered: is this a different breed? A knockoff? Some kind of marketing gimmick? The answer is surprisingly layered — and it starts with one of the strangest origin stories in the cat fancy world.

 

It All Begins with Ann Baker (and a Very Famous White Cat)

To understand Cherubim cats, you have to go back to Riverside, California in the early 1960s. A cat breeder named Ann Baker lived next door to a neighbor who owned a semi-feral white cat named Josephine — described as having the appearance of a Turkish Angora. Josephine was wild and passed that temperament on to her kittens. Then one day, Josephine was hit by a car. After recovering indoors, something seemed to change. The kittens born after her accident were noticeably different: docile, large, and craving human attention.

Ann Baker was fascinated. She began selectively breeding Josephine’s offspring with other cats — including a male that resembled a Birman — and by the mid-1960s, she had developed a new breed she called the Ragdoll, named for the cats’ famous tendency to go limp when picked up.

But Ann Baker was no ordinary breeder. She was eccentric, controlling, and deeply convinced that her cats were something extraordinary. Over the years she made increasingly wild claims: that Josephine’s temperament change after the accident was caused by altered DNA, that her cats carried secret government-engineered genetics, infusions of skunk or human genes, or even alien DNA. (Clinical examination of Ragdolls in 1990–91 by Dr. Andrew Nash in Glasgow concluded they were, in fact, perfectly normal cats.)

She also did something unprecedented: she trademarked the name “Ragdoll” and demanded franchise fees from anyone who bred or sold them. She formed her own registry, the International Ragdoll Cat Association (IRCA), and operated it almost entirely on her own terms.

What Were the “Cherubim”?

Here’s where the Cherubim name enters the picture. Ann Baker’s trademarked umbrella term for all of her IRCA cat varieties was “Cherubim Cat” — meaning, in her words, “Angels non-fighting cat.” (Cat historians have noted with some amusement that in religious tradition, Cherubim are actually warrior angels, not the sweet cherubs Baker apparently had in mind.)

Under the Cherubim umbrella, Baker housed an astounding — and largely fictional — list of “breeds” including Ragdolls, Miracle Ragdolls, Honey Bears, Doll Babies, Baby Dolls, Shu Schoos, Catenoids, and more. Many of these varieties existed only on paper or in the confines of her cattery, which reportedly held as many as 500 cats.

Crucially, Baker’s Ragdoll program included cats in mink, sepia, and solid color patterns — not just the classic blue-eyed pointed look. She even stamped “Registrar of Cherubim Cats” on every original IRCA registration. These richer, darker-coated cats were part of the breed from the very beginning.

The Split: Traditional Ragdolls Break Away

By the early 1970s, two of Baker’s breeders — Denny and Laura Dayton — had grown frustrated with her restrictions and demands. They broke away from IRCA, took their cats with them, and presented the breed to TICA (The International Cat Association) for independent recognition. They did so on the basis that Ann Baker’s trademark could not and should not limit the breed’s future.

TICA recognized their cats — the blue-eyed, colorpointed Ragdolls we know today — as the standard Ragdoll. This version became the foundation for what most cat registries now accept as “traditional” Ragdolls: large, semi-longhaired cats with always-blue eyes and a colorpointed coat (meaning a lighter body with darker “points” on the ears, face, tail, and paws).

Baker continued operating IRCA until her death in 1997, after which the organization disbanded. Many of her remaining cats were absorbed into the RagaMuffin breed or quietly re-registered elsewhere.

So What Is a Cherubim Cat, Exactly?

For decades after Baker’s death, mink, sepia, and solid-colored Ragdolls existed in a kind of limbo. They were bred by dedicated enthusiasts who knew them to be true Ragdolls in temperament, structure, and lineage — but they couldn’t compete in TICA championship shows, because the official Ragdoll standard required blue eyes and a pointed coat.

Breeders showed these cats under TICA’s “New Traits” class starting around 2010, but they remained outside of championship recognition. Other smaller registries, like the LCWW, moved faster — in October 2023, they voted to allow mink and sepia Ragdolls to compete alongside traditional Ragdolls under the Cherubim Ragdoll name, and by early 2025, accepted solids into championship classes as well.

Then, on May 1, 2025, TICA made it official: mink, sepia, and solid-colored Ragdolls were formally reclassified as Cherubim (breed code: CB), a separate classification within the Ragdoll Breed Group. TICA members — specifically paid Ragdoll breed members — voted to approve the change.

Ragdoll vs. Cherubim: What’s Actually Different?

This is the question everyone asks, and the answer is genuinely simple:

The coat and eye color. Nothing else.

Ragdolls and Cherubim share the same body type, conformation standards, coat texture, size, and — most importantly — the same legendary temperament. Both are large, gentle, floppy, people-oriented cats that bond closely with their families. The differences are purely genetic:

• Traditional Ragdolls carry two copies of the colorpoint gene, producing the classic lighter body with darker points and always-blue eyes.

• Cherubim carry the mink (one copy of colorpoint + one copy of sepia), sepia (two copies of sepia/burmese gene), or solid pattern, resulting in richer, more uniform coloring and eyes that can range from aqua to green to gold.

Mink Cherubim tend to have aqua-colored eyes and a coat with visible but subtle pointing. Sepia Cherubim have the plushest, darkest coats of all and the widest range of eye colors — green, gold, aqua, and more. Solid Cherubim are the most dramatically full-colored, with no pointing at all.

A single litter can contain both traditional Ragdolls and Cherubim kittens if one or both parents carry the mink or sepia gene. They’re born side by side, raised together, and are behaviorally indistinguishable. The only difference is which coat genetics each kitten inherited.

Are Cherubim “Real” Ragdolls?

This debate has been simmering in Ragdoll communities for years, and the answer — depending on who you ask — ranges from “absolutely” to “technically not.”

Here is a fair summary of both sides:

Yes, Cherubim are real Ragdolls. Mink, sepia, and solid lines trace directly back to Ann Baker’s original breeding program — the very foundation of the Ragdoll breed. These color genetics were present from the start. TICA now formally recognizes them as part of the Ragdoll Breed Group, and their conformation standards are identical to traditional Ragdolls. The name “Cherubim” is a show classification, not a statement that these cats are something other than Ragdolls.

However, they don’t meet the traditional Ragdoll standard. The classic Ragdoll standard, as established by TICA since the 1970s, specifies blue eyes and a colorpointed coat. Under that definition, a mink or solid cat is “non-traditional.” That’s not a judgment — it’s simply what the established standard describes. Many traditional Ragdoll breeders and cat associations worldwide (CFA, GCCF) do not recognize Cherubim at all and continue to restrict the Ragdoll standard to pointed cats with blue eyes.

The most accurate thing to say is this: Cherubim are Ragdolls by genetics, temperament, and heritage — but a separate show classification by registry rules. TICA’s decision to create the Cherubim name wasn’t to push these cats out of the Ragdoll family, but to give them a path into championship competition that the pointed Ragdoll standard had previously blocked them from.

As one breeder put it: “Same soul, different coat.”

The Bottom Line

The Cherubim name has a history stretching back to Ann Baker’s eccentric 1960s cattery — but its modern meaning is both simpler and more significant. It’s TICA’s formal recognition that the mink, sepia, and solid lines of Ragdolls deserve the same show ring status as their blue-eyed pointed siblings.

If you’re looking for a family companion, the Ragdoll vs. Cherubim question is essentially irrelevant. Both offer the same massive, affectionate, floppy-when-held cat that the breed has been beloved for since Josephine’s kittens first surprised Ann Baker in a Riverside backyard sixty years ago.

If you’re a breeder or exhibitor, the classification matters — and as of 2025, TICA has given Cherubim their rightful place at the table.

Either way, the cats themselves haven’t changed a bit.