IC DK Alfheim`s Quota

02.25.07 HCM: Normal on 10.03.04 HCM: Mild on 10.05.06 & 10.12.06 PKD & PL: Normal HD: Normal on 10.03.04

I bought Quota because I needed a "replacement" for Mirelle, whom I lost in April 99, even though you can never replace a cat. I wasn`t really looking for a new cat, but when I saw Quota I knew that I would like her to be a part of my home.

I have showed Quota and she has become a IC and I doubt that she can obtain a higher title.

The first time she was mated was with Junior Gyldenløve. I chose Junior because he was bred with her mother, Gomorran`s Gloria, and I hoped that the result from thsi combination would be as nice as the once he had with Gloria. On May 9th my long awaited litter after those two were born. For some reason, Quota only gave birth to one kitten, even though she looked to be carrying more than one:-)

Willandra was a very promising female, so promising that I had desided to keep her in my breedingprogram, but when some of my former buyers approached me and told me that they really wanted to buy her, I allowed her to move in with them. Today Wilandra lives in the US, together with Marcelina, Morgana and Quantana.

Quota has had 2 litter since then and now we have breed her to David. Their kittens arrived on June 9th.

We have desided to have Quota neutered in the near future.

10.12.06

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. Quota was one of the cats we entered the project. The reason why there's 2 results for Quota, with only one week apart, is because Jørgen Kock, the primary source behind the project, wanted to rescan some of the cats, to see if their results had changed, even though only a week had passed since the first scanning.

03.21.07

The day we decided that it was time to let Quota go came much sooner than any of us had anticipated. Quota was diagnosed in October 2006 with mild hcm by Jørgen Koch at LIFE. And ever since she had been diagnosed she has been scanned on a monthly basis to monitor the development of her HCM. In January, February and March 2007 we have followed the development of more and more blood clots in her heart, which could be seen both as white areas in the heart and as dead tissue on Jørgen's scanner.

Besides the multiple blood clots shown by the monthly scanning, which made us fear that we would either find her dead on the floor one day or (even worse!) that she would throw a blood clot that would be stuck in the back of her body, causing her excruciating pain and making her paralyzed, she had changed her behaviour over the months after she was first diagnosed. She wasn't that good cleaning herself any more and she became VERY affectionate not only to us but also to our guests, a behaviour she usually didn't show unless she were pregnant or had kittens nursing. She also lost weight and even though she had always been a bit too big, it was with great concern that we watched her weight go down by 1 kg over a period of only 6 months. We tried to keep her at her normal weight by feeding her kitten food, both the dry and wet version from Hills. She went from 5,7 kg to 4,7 kg and when the numbers of blood clots also increased, we chose to donate her heart to the ongoing HCM research, in the vain hope that her death can contribute to solve the mystery that feline HCM still is.

Quota has been missed since she was put to sleep and it has been very hard to write about the last months we had with her, but we feel that enough time has passed for us to feel comfortable writing about it.

Quota - we miss you, but we made the right decision for you and that gives us some comfort and peace of mind. Luckily for us we share our life with 2 of your sons who remind us on a daily basis about you and we truly enjoy every minute we spend with them. We'll see you again, of that we are sure......