Tails of the City: “They Are Our Angels”
In the first of our recurring series Tails of the City about our intimate connection with animals, we peek inside the Hettemas’ cat-centric life.
Ahu and Brandon Hettema with three of their eight cats (the others were hiding) inside their Kaka‘ako apartment. The Hettemas plan to move to a home in Hawai‘i Kai to give the kitties, all of whom are fixed, more space to roam. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Ahu and Brandon Hettema didn’t intend to adopt eight cats, but as life typically goes, their feline “angels,” as Ahu calls them, found their way to them. Aslan was the first. They met the rescued kitty in 2014 during an adoption event at Petco Kapolei. “He hugged me and wouldn’t let me go,” recalls Ahu, the chef-owner of acclaimed restaurant Istanbul. At the time, the couple didn’t have (or want) a pet. But the day after that memorable encounter, Brandon went back for the loving orange tabby.
Then came Alice, adopted to be Aslan’s friend. Then Titania and Totoro, a fixed male who befriended a pregnant stray; once the stray had kittens, all of them went to live at the Hettemas’ then-home in Kapolei. Initially, Ahu and Brandon planned to put the kittens up for adoption. “But once you have this, you have this,” Ahu says. “And the idea of letting them go is not possible.”
SEE ALSO: Why Can’t Honolulu Be More Pet-Friendly?
