She is perched on the steps of a newly built, but noticeably empty cat playhouse that looks something like a bird cage at the zoo. Hluboky seems unaware of the fine cat hairs that cover her maroon T-shirt, but is quick to hear the cry of one of her Òbabies.Ó It is a sad, anguished sound that expresses Hluboky's own grief.

It's another day Hluboky will mourn this year. In February, her 13-year-old dog Frosty died, and one month later her mother passed away. Yesterday, Hluboky learned that on May 1 the Hawaiian Humane Society began killing 134 of the cats seized from her last September.

ÒYou cannot put a person through so much emotional trauma,Ó she says. ÒIt's bad enough to have lost my dog and my mother, but now to have them euthanize my cats, too.Ó

The society took 208 of her cats last year, and immediately killed 15 because they said those cats were extremely sick. Two others ran away. At Hluboky's March 1 sentencing on an animal cruelty conviction, the court turned over custody of the remaining animals to the society, and 57 were adopted.

Hluboky, who was allowed to keep only 41 of the 240-some cats that once made up her family, says she knew each one and called most of them by name.

ÒIf they couldn't afford them, they should have given them back to me or tried some other avenues,Ó Hluboky said. ÒThey had no right to just go ahead and do that. They're callous.Ó

What's more, no one bothered to tell the 64-year-old retired schoolteacher that her cats were being euthanized.

ÒWe felt it didn't serve any purpose except to upset her,Ó said Eve Holt, the society's community relations director.

Holt said the society made every effort to find homes for the cats, spending at least $60,000 on shelter, food, veterinary care and medicine. They offered adoption specials and free antibiotics.

ÒWe did everything we could,Ó she said, adding that the society kept the cats for eight weeks after it gained legal custody.

By comparison, the society holds cats without identification for only 48 hours and those with IDs for at least nine days.

Veterinarian Becky Rhoades, the society's director of operations, said Hluboky was in denial over her cats and that it is Òlike an addictionÓ she's bound repeat. Rhoades earlier said many of the cats lived in unsanitary airline crates, with three to four in a container.

Hluboky said she thought the society would at least keep her cats alive until the appeal of her conviction was settled in the courts. She said she believed officials were going to work with her to improve conditions for her cats, not take them away. She said she will talk with her lawyer about the next step, although yesterday a judge dismissed Hluboky's lawsuit against the society that claimed emotional distress as a result the seizure.

ÒIf they (the courts) side with me now, what's the point?Ó Hluboky says. ÒI can't get the cats back. That's the one thing I wanted back was the cats. I was never out after money or anything like that. I don't know how I'm going to go on with my life.Ó

It is a life that is now filled with fear. Hluboky keeps her cats in an out-of-the-way set of cubbyhole sized pens that attach to a larger cat playhouse, far from curious eyes. She is afraid to leave them in a more accessible area because she believes the society could descend upon her home once again and take away her remaining pets.

ÒI am never going to forgive them. I can never forgive them for what they have done to me and to those cats, especially for what they have done to those cats. I failed them, somehow. I failed to keep them alive, which is only what I wanted to do in my life.Ó