Little Merlin is quite a handful.

[Siwsan]

Literally.

[teran]

1. The little black toe beans!

He's just adorable! 😻

[JMCKUSICK]

2. Literally

He's going to be stunning. Is his hair white bear his skin?

[Siwsan]

3. He does have a small white patch by his neck

His legs have some greyish colored fur but I wonder if that will change.

Gryff had a very 'dusty grey' cast to his fur when I first brought him home. Turns out it was a 'fever coat'. probably caused by nutritional issues with his mom. Now he's solid black except for a very tiny spray of white hairs on his chest.

[Polly Hennessey]

4. Merlin the Magic Kitty 🐈‍⬛. My goodness, I am already in love 😻

[ShazzieB]

5. He is adorable!

I'm SO glad he seems to be turning out to be healthy and strong and hope that trend continues.🤞🤞🤞

Love the name, too!

[Siwsan]

6. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed he's going to be a healthy boy

His appetite is still good and he's finally sleeping much more than before. I know how important sleep is for kittens and think it was just the change in his environment that kept him awake. He seems to be very much at home.

[3catwoman3]

7. 12 years ago, our sons rescued a kitten while in San Antonio...

...with their college soccer team on a preseason tournament trip. The team found this little black and brown tabby guy all alone on a cement foot bridge while on their way back to their hotel after dinner. They looked for litter mates or a mom cat, but couldn't find anyone. He had an injured toe on his left back foot and was getting around on 3 legs, so our guess was that he got left behind when momma moved the rest of the litter because he couldn't keep up.

They couldn't find a shelter that would take him, so they passed the hat amongst their teammates and bought the kitten an airline ticket back to the Midwest - we live in the greater Chicago area, and they were both attending Carthage College in Kenosha WI. The little guy weighed 1.25 pounds (5 sticks of butter) so was probably 4-6 weeks old. He was so small that they used the bottle cap from a Gatorade bottle as a water dish.

He has thrived, and grew up to be a big fella, at about 15 pounds. He's very sweet, and I love him to bits. He's not a lap cat but he likes to be really near me, and at this very moment is sitting right next to me on the kitchen counter, while I am typing, with his front legs touching my right forearm. He will stay here as long as I do. He's very devoted.

[Skittles]

9. awwwwww

what a great story

[3catwoman3]

10. The school on-line newspaper even did a story about this...

Last edited Fri Sep 27, 2024, 10:57 PM - Edit history (1)

...which I helped to write.

I was worried about how the team was going to get the kitten on to the plane because they had no papers/shot records/health certificate/cage - nothing. The airline had no trouble selling them a ticket, but I didn't know what some picky gate agent might do when it came time to board.

I'd made a few calls to shelters and rescue organizations myself, and one of them was to the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition. In speaking to the woman there, I mentioned that I had lived in San Antonio for 2 years during my first assignment with the Air Force nurse corps. To my surprise, she said, "Oh, I was an Air Force nurse, too!"

Good juju or good karma, I thought. 2 former AF nurses on the same cat rescue mission - something good is going to happen. She was kind enough to meet my sons at the airport with a soft-sided carrier, some food, and some litter.

Every late summer/early fall, I send her some pictures of Winston, the rescue cat, and an update on him. She always says she is happy to hear about him, and says how lucky he was to be found by my sons and their team mates.

[Skittles]

11. well you know I am a USAF vet too

and pretty much all of my kitties came to me from the street

[3catwoman3]

12. My second assignment was 2 years at Yokota Air Base...

...where I was the only peds nurse practitioner in the small pediatric clinic, with 2 pediatricians. Quite a change from Wilford Hall in San Antonio, where we had 5 nurse practitioners and a full residency program and all the peds sub-specialists.

I loved being in Japan. I grew up in western upstate NY. Texas felt like another planet to me, more foreign than Japan.

I met my husband in Japan. AF pilot. He was my next door neighbor in the BOQ.

I adopted a kitten while in Japan, and brought him back to the States with me - no way I could have left him there. I had him for 20 years.

Quite a number of veterans here on DU.

[slightlv]

13. Wilford Hall is where my daughter was born!

She joined my (by then) ex-husband at Yokota Air Base some many years later...

[2naSalit]

8. I see hints of stripes...

Might be a long hair, though. So tiny and so cute!

[slightlv]

14. They are so adorable when they find their feet!

This one especially... I'd love to have another kitten, but I'm too old. I'm afraid he'd outlive me (sigh)...

[pansypoo53219]

15. merlin like my 1st kitten.