The Nine Lives of Ohana

Sometimes we give someone a name and sometimes they spend a lifetime giving it meaning. Ohana did exactly that.

And today, with hearts full of gratitude and sorrow in equal measure, we honoured our beautiful tortoiseshell queen by listening to her final request. Her ancient body had grown weary as time had quietly caught up with her and the medications that had faithfully carried her through her twilight years could carry her no further.

But before today, there were the nine remarkable lives of Ohana. A cat of determination, mischief and opinions.

Her first life was almost certainly one of love. We know this because when she eventually found her way to us, beneath the fear and uncertainty of that young cat, barely a kitten herself, was a gentle little lady who already knew how to trust. And that almost broke our hearts because somewhere, once upon a time, she had been somebody’s kitten.

Then, somehow, everything changed.

Her second life was one no animal should ever know. She found herself alone on the streets, dodging speeding cars and running from the very kindness that might have saved her, because she could no longer afford to trust either. Each day became less about living and more about enduring.

Her third life brought motherhood. Pregnant and vulnerable, she searched desperately for somewhere safe to bring her babies into the world. She found what she hoped would be sanctuary inside a piece of factory equipment, hidden from both danger and view. Though good food and warmth were scarce, her love, most certainly was not.

Then came life number four. A factory worker discovered her tiny kittens and knew that moving the machinery would mean certain death. “I don’t even like cats,” he admitted later. But that day, his heart spoke louder than his words. It was Christmas, after all. And with a lifeline sought, four scrawny, grimy kittens were soon sanctuary-bound. The tiny body of a fifth, who had already passed away, was gently retrieved from the dumpster where the rubbish had been discarded.

However, frightened by all of the daytime commotion, Ohana had fled, though she hid somewhere out of view and waited. That evening, a trap was quietly set and joy erupted all round when a worker called through to say she had been caught. With that began life number five. Even now, all these years later, the memory of that late-night reunion still brings tears to our eyes, and warmth, so much warmth to our hearts. Watching Ohana roll onto her side as her babies nestled in remains one of sanctuary’s most precious moments.

Despite all she had endured, she poured every ounce of herself into raising her precious babies Lilo, Leilani, Makame and little Stitch. Their congenital eyelid condition, eyelid agenesis, likely compounded by the nutritional challenges she faced while surviving on the streets, made the world an uncomfortable place to look upon, yet under their devoted mumma’s watchful eye and with ongoing veterinary care, they flourished.

Life number six was one of healing.

Life number seven was one of belonging. As the years ticked by, Lilo, Leilani and Makame, whose eye conditions were the most advanced, required a lifetime indoors to protect their precious eyes. Ohana stayed beside dear Stitch, who would grow into the sanctuary’s much-loved “Vet Nurse Stitch.” Together they made first the barn and later our vetroom their home. Not because they had nowhere else to go, but because they had finally found somewhere they belonged.

Each evening when living in the barn, we’d safely shut them into the cat room, wedging a heavy box against the cat flap so they couldn’t wander before sunrise. Yet no matter how much weight we added, every single morning there sat Ohana, waiting to greet us as though she’d somehow discovered an opposable paw overnight. She may have been a petite little cat, but her determination was every bit as mighty as her heart.

Life number eight was wonderfully ordinary. The greatest gift sanctuary can ever offer is not excitement, but uneventfulness. Safe days, familiar faces, gentle hands and full bellies. It is the quiet certainty that tomorrow will come, and it will be kind.

And then came Ohana’s ninth life. Not her final chapter, but her longest one. The life where she no longer had to survive, she simply had to belong.

Perhaps that is what all nine lives had been leading her towards.

And that brings us to today when we accepted what Ohana had been quietly telling us. It was time for that beautiful life to draw to its close.

Faced with her fading strength, we returned to one question we always ask: What would Ohana want? The answer was written not in words, but in love. Love sometimes means holding on. And sometimes, with tears streaming down our faces, it means gently letting go.

How fitting, then, that the little cat who once knew abandonment should spend the last 12 years of her life knowing only love, safety and belonging.

She came to us having lost her family. She left this world having taught us they can also be found.

Run free, beautiful Ohana. Thank you for showing us that home is not the place where our story begins.

It is the place where, at long last, we are never left behind again.