Problem with X cursor theme in KDE

[Eric <ea.quint@verizon.net>]

Hello,  I'm running Debian sid and recently did a dist-upgrade to KDE
3.1.5.  It went well except my X cursor theme does not load anymore.

I googled the problem and came across this 

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=226545

Which about halfway down refrences this discussion

http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/debian-x-200401/msg00267.html

I have attempted the corrections stated in those threads.  Creating the
sym link and installing the dev package.  I still can not get my mouse
theme to load/show  except when waiting for a page to load in Mozilla
the busy cursor is my mouse theme busy cursor.  After the page is loaded
it reverts back to the core cursor.  My cursor theme is installed in
~/.icons/default

Any hints, tips, or an outright fix welcomed :)

thanks in advance
eric