Ch DK Loddenhøj`s DeoxyriboNucleicAcid

I have to admit that I never thought that I would own an all white Norwegian Forest Cat, but I`ve wised up since then:-) Due to special circumstances I was offered Dina, as she was called by her previous owner, but I`m already calling her Donna, because of her exquisite look:-) Since I already own her halfbrother, Fighter, there was no doubt in my mind that I would take her. With the blessing of her breeders of course:-)

She moved in with me on April 23th and, after a visit to my vet, I put her together with my other cats the next day. No problems there, she just walked right into my group and was accepted immediately and she also accepted my cats, without any problems at all! She seems to be a really easygoing and sweet cat, who already thinks that my bed is the best place to bunk at night:-)

My plans for her is to let her settle in nice and easy, which she already has, and then I`ll breed her to one of my males.

And my *plan* worked....... after some frustration, where she didn't become pregnant after all or started to bleed when she was 5 weeks pregnant, Donna is finally a MOM and she LOVES it! Hopefully this is not the last time she gets the chance of being a mom:-)

Donna was bred very soon after her kittens had left us, after consulting the vets, so that we could keep her cycling going and perhaps get a couple of more litters from her, since it has been so difficult to get just one litter from her. In August 2005 Donna gave birth to one stillborn 125 grams kitten and we desided to neuter her when that happened. During the surgery the vet found 15 cysts filled with water, each app. 2 - 3 cm wide, both in and outside her ovaries. This is probably the reason why she has had such difficulties becoming pregnang at all. The vet couldn't believe how Donna had managed to become pregnant twice, because the cysts must have been in her ovaries for quit some time.

As part of the HCM project at KVL, some of our cats was asked to come and give bloodsamples and also be scaned for HCM. Donna was one of the cats we entered the project and she will be scaned according to the "normal" procedures we follow, as recommended by Pawpeds.

The researchers has asked us if we will come with Donna in January 2099 and have her scanned, not because there's something wrong, she has a healthy looking heart, but becasue they want to follow some "older" cats and see what happens to their hearts as they get older. Of course we have agreed to let them see her again. They also want to see Donna back in a year and scan her again.

Because it was hard to find a day that suited us all, it wasn't until February we could bring Donna and the other cats the researchers had asked to see. It went very well and Donna has a very healthy and welfunctioning heart and THAT is always nice to know:-)

Donna has always been a little bit of a cautious cat who didn't make a lot of fuzz about herself, and after she was neutered, she has at times found it difficult to be left alone from some of the other cats. Our cats are divided into different groups pending on the cats we have and how they feel about each other, but usually we have 2 groups and sometimes, Donna has had problems with 1 cat in the group she was in, and although we have shifted the cat into the other group, there have been periods where a second cat would then begin to go "after" Donna. For some time there has not been any problems whatsoever, but recently one of the other cats began to go after Donna again, and although we moved the cat away from the group Donna was in, it became clear that she didn't fit into the group anymore. We therefore took the decision to rehome Donna, an approach we rarely use, but we found that Donna would be better of if she could be allowed to go into another home, as a single cat, an offer we can't honor in our own house. Therefor we have allowed Donna to move in with Ketty in Mern, where she will enjoy her retirement years as a pampered single cat. However, we will see Donna from time to time, especially when we borrow her to have her scanned for HCM in the project she and other of our cats are assigned to at KVL.