Hallies Lucky 13th

Today for Hallie, thirteen is definitely her lucky number as she celebrates her 13th birthday today. The old lady is indisputably the ruler over the rest of the feline family in the house, although sometimes it takes a few sound cuffs on the head for her to convince a couple of the brattier youngsters that they absolutely never under any circumstances, dare to attempt to steal any of the food out of Hallie's dish while she is eating.

You see, Hallie gets a premium food for older cats while the youngsters have to eat Whiskas. Now there's nothing wrong with Whiskas, in fact out of all the regular cat foods I've tried, Whiskas does the best job of maintaining cats of all ages in good condition with good palatability and less stool volume in the litter pans than all the other regular foods I've ever tried. But cats are much like children in the respect that if somebody is being fed something different than the others got, the others immediately have to go try to get a share of the something different just to see if that something different is really better than what they have or not.

As Hallie sits eating her food, the younger cats hover around her sort of like a group of vultures, waiting for the moment Hallie might pause eating long enough for one of them to steal a bite of her food. As Hallie eats she mutters growly kitty threats at the youngsters, warning them that if they know what's good for them they will keep a respectful distance from her food & not even think of trying to steal any of it. After Hallie finishes eating, this time the youngsters are out of luck. I see she's done eating & pick up the disk with the remaining uneaten food in it, cover it & put it away beyond the reach of the youngsters.

Hallie walks through the living room to the kitchen to get a drink, any other cat who happens to be in her way had better step aside or else with a swat & her typical Siamese loud mouth, she will make it clear to them that the rules of the house are indisputably that when Hallie is coming through, all other cats should move out of her way and let her pass by. After all, it's not wise to mess with Hallie the grouch.

Hallie could not look any LESS Siamese but her temperament & her vocal abilities unmistakably scream....or howl....or yell....or with other unearthly sounds unique to Siamese cats & Siamese mixes. make it clear that the looks are practically the only Siamese trait Hallie doesn't have.

As for Hallie being a grouch, well the old lady's clearly been through hells before I got her, & who know how many other hells she went through other than those I'm aware of. She's got a right to be a grouch. Besides its funny when I sing "Hallie the grouch" in tune to the old Addams Family song and when I snap my fingers, Hallie responds right on cue with her loud Siamese mrroowwww!

Return to Mobility

When I locate which drive and which computer the files for Hallie's diary updates are on, I will edit this with more specific dates.

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June 19 2009

At about 9 pm tonight, June 19 2009 Hallie WALKED for the first time, taking a few steps. I had been petting her, then stopped petting her and went a few feet from her and she got up and walked over to get petted again.
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Before that, Hallie would get around with a movement I can best describe as a crawl.


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As soon as Hallie became able to jump again, she immediately assumed ownership of the bathroom throne! One day when it was necessary for me to dethrone Hallie, I brought a grooming rake with me. Hallie needed to have dead undercoat groomed out. To my surprise, Hallie LOVED being groomed. She started rubbing the sides of her head against the rake teeth, scratching the areas she wanted scratched. I was surprised that this cat who obviously has suffered a lot of abuse, loves to be groomed.

Hallie still reacts in fear to certain things. As is typical of cats and many other animals when scared, she will growl and hiss and display aggressive behavior in an attempt to mask her fear. The sight of a broom or a vacuum cleaner will make her show fear-aggression. She is afraid of water. If even a few drops hit her, she shows fear-aggression. Changing the trashbag in the bathroom wastebasket scares her. Any movement that's made too fast when walking or standing up from sitting, will scare her. What happened to Hallie to cause these fear reactions, I can only guess at.

So far, Hallie is also still scared of the other cats. I sometimes stand and hold the bathroom door open a moment so she can see the other cats (somebody usually is in the hallway outside the door). She will act curious and then hiss and retreat at which point I shut the door. I don't want to push her. Pushing a cat will achieve nothing except resistance and deeper fear. Time and patience are two of the biggest necessities in working with a fearful cat.

In the beginning...

Hallie was adopted on 5-20-09 after being dumped on 5 12 09 at Humane society, 11 years old, stated reason was simply that her owner didn't want her anymore.

I had gone to the Humane Society to look at another cat I'd heard about and I was walking around their cattery just to see all the cats that were there, when I first noticed Hallie in the back of her cage trying to hide under her bed.
I have always paid particular attention to the older cats in shelters because they have so much more difficulty getting adopted than kittens and young cats have. To me, its a vicious tragedy when someone dumps an old cat they have had for many years, in a shelter. Thus it was that Hallie caught my eye.
Instantly I had a very strong intuitive feeling that I needed to adopt Hallie and get her out of the shelter. I felt so strongly that if I didn't take her, Hallie would never get adopted. She was nasty, growling and hissing and striking out with her (declawed) front paws at anyone who got too close to her. She also spontaneously urinated whenever someone tried to touch her.
Having bred and showed a variety of breeds of cats in the past, having shown HHP, having been a cat show judge & 4-H judge, having managed catteries for breeders when they were at shows or on vacations, I wasn't intimidated by Hallie's show of fear aggression.

When I filled out the form to adopt Hallie, one of the shelter workers "helpfully" informed me that Hallie "submissive wet like a dog does" with fear when you touched her. Since cats do not submissive urinate as dogs do, I disregarded the comment. I assumed the wetting was due to extreme fear.

Upon arriving home, I put Hallie into a large cage that was mostly darkened by a blanket covering the top and sides. I've found through experience that giving a scared cat a cge where they can hide and feel safe and watch the world through the open front of the cage, is the best way to calm & start socializing a scared or feral cat.

However, it quickly became apparent that much more was wrong with Hallie than fear. She could not stand up or walk. Thus, I moved Hallie to the bathroom, set up a thick towel on the floor for her to lay on, and gave her a very low-sided litterpan so she could easily crawl into it.

It also became very obvious that most of Hallie's aggressive behavior was PAIN & fear induced. I found out Hallie enjoyed having her head and ears scratched but was terrified of having her body touched. Between Hallie's inability to walk, her spontaneous urination when she became fearful that her body might be touched, and her overall fear-aggressive behavior, I suspected that she had a broken pelvis and had been dumped because of the injury.