About ...
What can we say about Hijiki that does not involve words of four letters of Anglo Saxon origin?

She is - trying... But we are fond of her. [There! "Fond" - that's got four letters....]

She was found as a kitten walking along a railway line, and brought to us.

She has - probably - CH - cerebellar hypoplasia, or something similar. Part of the brain does not develop properly - often due to malnutrition in the womb or just after birth - leading to a whole range of conditions.

She does not walk in a straight line - she has a weaving gait - and appears to have limited control over her emotions. She will attack other cats from behind. Black socks on little pasty white English feet were her particular enemy - and her bites were deep. She likes to curl up and sleep with people - she is a sociable girl - but may suddenly decide they are a threat to her and attack their face.

There is a case - a strong case, that we considered at some length - for euthanising such cats. They are not easily rehomable, they may have very limited quality of life, and they may be dangerous. [Literally - we ended each month with 6 or 7 sets of fresh puncture marks - on one occasion, I had her by the back legs, pulling hard, stretched out horizontally, as her front end was very firmly attached by her teeth to my nose. Very funny to look at: a bit less funny if you are the owner of the nose... Deep cat bites are no picnic.]

As a kitten she had been a bit odd, but very friendly, sociable and super affectionate. We made videos in good faith saying how sweet she was. By the time it became clear that she was not actually safe to rehome, she was already vaccinated, spayed and chipped.

So: we put euthanasia on the table - the far end of the table - as a last option, but resolved first to see what we could do to give her quality of life and make her safe. Long discussions with the vet. Drugs are one option - and we tried them for a while. Her behaviour became a little better, but she still wasn't safe around people - and we felt the drugs were just doping her up rather than actually helping her stay calm. Not so much helping her order and control her inner life as removing that inner life altogether. A chemical cosh. Overall, not much quality of life for her, or, frankly, for us as she was still prone to biting.

After more discussion with the vet, and as a last resort before euthanasia - we decided to have her teeth removed. This is something we do with cats who have very bad mouth ulcers that won't heal - and we know that cats can live perfectly happily without teeth and their condition often improves greatly. We felt bad about removing healthy teeth, but she was dangerous, and we were out of options. Removing the teeth would at least make her safe, allow her to be around people, and give her time to grow out of some of her problems.

That was about 4 and a half years ago. She is still with us. She has calmed down a bit, with humans, and will curl up with me when given the chance.

It isn't ideal for a shelter to have too many cats like that of course. Feeding her is an ongoing financial burden, and the money could be spent on other animals. Not every cat we take is in perfect health - and some, like Hijiki, can be very challenging - but we do the best we can for them as individuals.

Now Hijiki has something resembling a decent quality of life. And that is enough for us to keep her.

She will probably be with us permanently.