Cole is one of four siblings at Tabby,s Place. Two of his siblings are already on hold to be adopted and Momcat Halladay has already found her forever home. Cole was born on or about 3/26/13. He is an orange tabby male who is a little furry ball of energy and speed and he is also an affectionate, purry little mite when he is not galloping around like a maniac. He has not been neutered yet because he is too small but we will attend to that when he has grown a bit.

Here’s where things get challenging. Halladay, the mother of Cole and his siblings, is FIV+. The standard test for whether a cat is FIV+ involves antibodies, but kittens are rarely tested this way. Why? Because Mothers pass antibodies to their kittens when the little ones are developing in the womb, so any cat under the age of six months tested by this old method is likely to come up with a positive reading, even if the cat isn’t really FIV+. However, there is now a very new test that looks for the presence of the virus itself—antigens, not antibodies. Antigens are not usually passed from Momcats to their kittens, though it is possible. So a kitten who tests positive for FIV under the new test is very likely to be FIV+. The system isn’t foolproof; both Cole and his siblings MUST be tested again at around six months of age. However, given the results from this newer test, we think it very likely that Cole is FIV+, and we think it very likely that his siblings are not FIV+.