Cats
charged other breeders (franchisees) a royalty fee for every kitten they sold. She also made
wild claims about the cats: their docility was due to changes in Josephine after she was hit by
a car (a long-discredited Lamarckian theory), that while Josephine was being treated for
injuries she was infused experimentally with skunk and/or racoon and/or human genes (even
if done, these genes would not have entered the egg cells in the ovaries), that Ragdolls were
immune to pain (they have normal pain thresholds but are remarkably tolerant cats) and even
that they are a link between us and space aliens! A more plausible suggestion was that
Josephine had a mutation in her ovaries and this mutation was present in the egg cells (a
germ-line mutation) and was passed on to her offspring.
Her claims and methods alienated other breeders, some of whom broke away to develop the
Ragdoll into a registrable breed using sound breeding practices
annaabi.ee 
