Hettie Kram; Longtime Protector of Cats

Hettie Kram, longtime resident manager of the Cat Care Shelter in West Los Angeles and president of its supporting Cat Care Club Inc., has died. She was 84.

Miss Kram, who since 1970 had lived at the shelter at 2240 Barry Ave., died July 21, her friend and associate Ralph Thurston announced Friday.

Rising daily at 4:30 a.m. and often cooking the food she fed her cats, which usually numbered about 200, the British-born Miss Kram devoted the last quarter-century of her life to aiding abandoned and abused cats. She named all her charges, and referred to herself by the nickname “Old Het.”

Miss Kram shopped the city for bargains in canned tuna and old but safe chicken, cooked the cats’ meals and served them twice a day, cleaned their litter boxes and hosed down their compound, took in unwanted cats and worked to find people to adopt them. She also campaigned for cats’ rights.

“There have been lots of studies and experiments done about how comforting it is for people, especially the elderly, to have a pet to share their lives with. But try telling the landlords that. More and more of them won’t let people have pets,” she told The Times in 1986 as she prepared to lobby the Los Angeles Animal Regulation Commission to prevent landlords from discriminating against people with pets.

She was also a strong advocate of public education and free clinics for spaying and neutering, and made sure that her own charges were sterilized.

“We are never going to beat this problem of overpopulation of cats--and dogs--in this country until we can educate the public about spaying and neutering the animals,” she said with her usual candor. “Why, one tomcat can service a whole county of females in heat without coming up for air.”

Miss Kram was also known for her talents in the kitchen--cooking and baking treats for people as well as cats. Her shortbread and jam-filled puff pastries were always a hit with shelter fund-raisers, and her recipes were featured in many publications, including The Times.

She was an unusual cook in that, while she never cooked by measure or written recipe, she could spell out the exact measurements in cups, spoons and pan sizes. She always baked and made her jams entirely from scratch.

Miss Kram claimed she learned her pastry techniques from the shipboard chef when she sailed for Canada in 1939. Persuaded by an aunt to take an earlier voyage than planned, she said the change saved her life; her originally booked vessel was lost at sea. Because of World War II, she never returned to England, where her sister died in a bombing raid on London.

As a child in England, Miss Kram had often tangled with her father over his killing or abandonment of the family’s cat litters--perhaps an indication of her future career. She labored in his factory, sold lingerie and worked as a typist and a seamstress.

After moving to the United States in 1949, she managed an office for pediatricians, often getting rebuked for taking lengthy lunch hours to volunteer at the cat shelter.

Miss Kram had requested that any donations in her memory be made to Cat Care Club Inc. or to the donor’s favorite charity.