GIC (N) David Austin av Boxerhaven

02.09.08, thanx to Wieke for the pictures:-) 03.15.08 HCM: Normal on 10.02.05, 10.05.06, 07.11.07 & 01.15.08 PKD & PL: Normal on 10.02.05 HD: Normal on 10.02.05 Weight on 01.15.08 7,2 kg

I have been wanting a kitten, fathered by (N) EC Charles Austin av Boxerhaven, for a long time now. Ever since one of the breeders I respect the most, came back from a show in Norway, and told me about this magnificent cat she had seen there.

I booked a kitten, from a mating where Charles Austin was going to be the father, but since that breeding didn`t take place, I chose to buy David, since he had been an eyecatcher for a long time:-) He is, after all, the grand child of Ingjalf, and I believe that he will be worthy of honourably carrying on his genes:-)

When David came home to me, I wasn`t disappointed with him at all, on the contrary! What a cat! What a temperament, size-wise he`s looking very promising as well, wonderfull big ears and a fantastic coat-structure as well. I`m more than pleased with him!

David has been living with me, for some time now, and time has just passed us by, because everything have been so wonderful! He is friendly with all the other cats, and loves a tour in the run.

He was so well adjusted, that he gained about 800 grams the first month he lived with us, and weighed a little over 4 kgs, at the age of 6 month. He gained weight almost overnight and 6 ½ months old he weighed 4.6 kgs (10.4 pounds) at the vets scale.

January 10th 2002 I got some very exciting news. David had become nr. 4, in the danish club for the Norwegian Forest Cat-competetion, of the kittens/youngsters showed in 2002! Januar 13th 2002 I got some more exciting news. David had become nr. 8, at Racekattens list, of the kittens/youngsters showed in 2002! Unfortunately I had forgotten to put his Best In Show, he got on one of the shows in Norway, on his assestment-paper, so that result didn`t count. If it had been on the paper, he would also have been nr. 4 here. May 14th 2002 I was thrilled to hear, that David has become nr. 9, on Felis Danicas list of the kittens/youngsters showed in the showyear 2002/2003!

David weighs 5.9 kgs, at the age of 13 months old, which is not to bad if you ask me:-)

David has been lend out to other breeders twice. The first trip went to England, to Mary-Rose who also borrowed his grand father, Ingjalf. The second trip went to Holland, where he lived with Wieke until he had mated 3 of her females:-)

01.15.08

As part of the HCM project at KVL all of our cats was called to come and give bloodsamples and be scaned for HCM. David was one of the cats we entered the project, where he will be scaned according to the "normal" procedures we follow, as recommended by Pawpeds, and he will also be scanned/examined when ever the researchers wants to. They have chosen to use David as one of the guidelines for what a normal cats heart should look like.

09.23.08

David died today :-( We had noticed that he had lost a bit of weight lately but not more than the usual weight loss we see every summer. Just to be on the safe side we had weighed him with 14 days apart and were shocked when we saw that he in that short time had lost just about 400 grams. That isn't normal at all and we chose to book a time with our regular vet, isolate him in a room away from the other cats, to give him the possibility to eat and sleep away from the other cats, because if it was a stress related weight loss being around the other cats might keep him from eating. He seemed his usual confident self around the other cats, but we just wanted to be on the safe side. Besides losing some weight he seemed fine and after saying goodnight and giving him a last cuddle we went to bed. The next morning when Carli entered the room to take him to the vet, he was lying on the floor, dead :-( We had a post mortem done by our vet and his first diagnosis was that he had died from poisoning. We found that to be highly unlikely and asked the vet to send samples to the laboratory. After a nerve-wracking waiting period we were told that our vet's initial diagnosis indeed was correct. David has most likely got hold of a mouse or rat that had eaten poison and that was what killed our David. The poisoning didn't cause him to lose weight though and the vet told us that it was a coincidence that he had lost weight right about the same time he got poisoned. During the summer of 2008 there has been a lot of talk about the amount of rats and mice in our area and although we haven't seen any, probably due to our cats:-), a lot of people followed the government's recommendations and put out poison to kill the mice and rats. After tragically losing David we have spoken to a number of vets who all say that they have seen a high incidence of cats and dogs with symptoms of being poisoned and some have also died from eating rats and mice who had been poisoned, just like our David:-( It's a sad and shocking way to lose a beloved pet and we have missed David ever since :-(