Katniss
Tri-City Tales Issue No. 25
Amber Haydin long had two cats, each one keeping the other company. When one of them died from old age, her remaining one, named Baby Girl, started to seem lonely. Haydin started thinking about getting a new companion.
Haydin and her family own a hair salon in Cedar Hill. One of their clients is Tri-City Animal Shelter’s director, Tammy Miller, who came in for a haircut around the time Haydin’s cat passed away. Since no member of the shelter staff is ever truly off duty, Miller – as she sat in the salon chair -- pulled out her phone to show Haydin a cat up for adoption. The photo showed a three-year-old half calico, half Siamese with sky blue eyes, looking mildly terrified. She had been at the shelter for four months, surrendered by a woman who moved away but did not take her pet.
Miller told Haydin that that shelter life had proven difficult for the cat. Though well cared for, she was under stress. Her life had been upended, going from the quiet of a home to a kennel at a busy shelter. She’d developed a respiratory infection. Haydin put down her scissors, looked at the photo and thought: She’s gorgeous.
Haydin drove to the shelter the next day. As she sat in the front meet-and-greet cat room, the cat approached slowly. A moment later, she was in Haydin’s lap. She had found her person. Haydin named her Katniss. (Yes, Haydin is a Hunger Games fan.)
At her new home, Katniss spent her first days under the bed, once again not sure where she was, what was happening, or what to make of Haydin’s other cat and two dogs. Haydin would lay on the floor, talking to her and trying to make her feel at ease. Within a couple of days, though, she was sleeping on the bed next to her new kitty sibling.
That was eight years ago. Today Katniss is, as Haydin says, “fat and lazy and happy. She follows me from room to room.” During the day, she plays in her favorite empty Amazon box. At night, she sleeps curled up next to Haydin.
She has transformed from the frightened cat she once was. “Even if they are not doing so well at the shelter,” Haydin says, “it’s sometimes just from being in the shelter.” Sometimes, animals just need a home to become who they truly are.