Nine cat lives (part 5) the wise cat

... and Ado got exchanged for Hali.
I am still highly impressed by Hali. Possibly he had been a victim in a car accident because there was something very wrong with his jaw. Nobody knew what exactly had happened, because he had entered the SPCA with this crooked chin. One of his lower teeth was sticking out over his upper lip. The vet of the SPCA had checked him, but he was okay to go.
So, it was clear. We chose him.

My Dad had a colleague with the same kind of chin and his surname was Hali. Hence we called our new friend Hali.

Hali met all the requirements a cat should meet. He was polite, he was nice to the other cats, he had a beautiful voice, he was good in bed (he slept on our heads) and always stayed close to the house.
If you adopt a cat from the SPCA they are always 4 years old. Or younger, but an adult cat is never older than 4 years. I guess it is because 4 years is the maximum age a potential new boss will accept.
Hali was not 4 years old. I suspected that from the beginning. He knew too much of life. He probably was even older than we were, because he was able to resign himself. I knew we were not that far in life. We seemed like children in comparison to his endless wisdom.

After a few years, he needed to visit the vet for a trifle and the vet wondered why his tooth was so foolishly sticking out. Like I said; We were children and we answered by a blank stare. The assertive vet took his denticians tools and filed off half the tooth. Suddenly Hali could close his mouth. He even looked more handsome too. It was a complete beauty make-over!
Why did the earlier vet from the SPCA never had come up with that idea?

Another few years went by and one morning we found Hali grown old overnight. He had been sleeping on a pile of old fabrics on the bottom of a closet. When we found him and he came out, he moved like a reumatic old man.
He developed hard lumps of tangled fur in his coat that I had to cut out from time to time. He rapidly got skinny. The vet couldn't do much. Hali was just old and had the same kidney problem as Poerk.
He started to walk around. Around the house. For hours and hours, repeatedly the same rounds with a determined look in his cloudy eyes. He kept doing this for half a year.

On a Friday morning Hali was done with his walks and laid down on the grill of the air heating in the floor. He needed warmth. Just like Poerk under his lamp, years ago.
On Saturday night we planned a new visit to the vet on Monday. If I had known Hali was dying, I would not have let him suffer for 3 days. Of course I knew his death was coming in the near future, but we expected to have a few more months together.
On Sunday night he was so fragile I hardly could think of how to transport him carefully enough.
In the early morning he did the final breath all by himself. No euthanasia by the vet.

If we meet again, after my own death, I hope I get the change to explain him everything. That we were willing to help him with a peaceful injection or all the party drugs he could dream of, but that we simply did not know he was already that far.

Nine cat lives (part 4) the reluctant cat
Nine cat lives (part 3) the Forest cat
Nine cat lives (part 2) the Peeër
Nine cat lives (part 1) the Gentleman

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