How we choose a pairing
We pair for temperament first, health second, and color a distant third. A queen who is nervous, or a king who is short-tempered, produces kittens who are the same however pretty they are, and a Ragdoll without the Ragdoll nature is a disappointment to the family that buys it. Our cats were chosen because they are steady, sociable and soft in the hand, and their kittens are the proof.
Color we can predict: a blue queen and a seal king give seal kittens and blue kittens in roughly equal numbers, and bicolor to bicolor gives bicolor. Pattern and sex we cannot choose, which is why we never take money for a kitten that has not been born. The colors page explains what each of those words means.
How they live
In the house. The queens have a nursery room for the first three weeks of a litter, with the door open and the family in and out of it, and after that the kittens move to the living room and the kitchen and learn about feet, vacuum cleaners, dogs and children. The adults sleep on beds, sit on the edge of the bath, and meet everyone who comes to the door. That is what we mean when we say raised underfoot, and it is why our kittens arrive at their new homes already used to a household. More about how we raise them.
