Chips was a male we were allowed
to use from Caliope Cattery (Collen and Mary Lou are
the breeders of CHIPS. Chips was in our program for
about six month, then returned to his breeder who
wanted to continue showing/breeding him in CFA. He
did gain his Grand Championship in CFA and was an
International Champion in Canada. Chips has also provided
Hedwig's Cattery with Grand Champion Black
Ice. Chips had a very large body/head, stunning
type. A few months after his return, testing for PKD
was put in place and he was scanned for the first
time. Sadly Chips came back positive. The breeder
contacted me, to inform me I should test any resulting
kitten/cats that came from him PRIOR to using them
in our breeding program. This was done not only for
the two female kittens I had (Autumn
& Brooke) but also for
my entire cattery. Any cats found with a positive
scan, were spayed/neutered and placed as loving pets
with families who were aware of the danger to the
cats long-term life span. We had eight cats show positive
for PKD, sadly most
were my top show males and one top show female. To
date, none of the eight (8) cats have shown any signs
of the disease, even with a positive scan. This could
mean they were a "false-postive". Which
on one hand breaks my heart that they were lost to
my breeding program, but on the other hand they appear
to still be healthy and doing well with their familes.
We had to decide what the right thing to do was, and
for me the risk of producing kittens or cats with
PKD was just to high
a price to pay. So while we lost them to our programs,
they still appear healthy which is the most important
thing. The two daughters of CHIPS scanned negative,
so can carry on Chips memory and bloodlines. Click
here for pedigree information.
