TheBanyanTree: Merlin

[NancyIee at aol.com]

Anyone who  might argue that a cat is a cat, a dog is a dog, has never 
accepted a  four-footed family member, and grown to love and be loved 
unconditionally by the  pet.  My pets are my therapy, my companions, my guardian 
angels, my  charges, my children, and part of my soul. I know there are ones gone 
ahead, and  wait for me by the gates. If there are no pets in Heaven . . . 
. . .I'm not  going.
 
Merlin waits for you . . . . .
 
Quoting  Roger <woodcatau at gmail.com>:

> Merlin
>
> The chubby  male tabby cat with white chest and paws came to us just two 
and
> a half  years ago, the self-appointed guardian of a very young female 
kitten
>  that Barbara the cat rescue lady two suburbs away had scooped up from  
death
> row at a Sydney shelter just 24 hours before. When we looked at  their
> papers we found that he was about fifteen months old and she was  thought 
to
> be four months old. He was quite confident, moreso than might  be expected
> as he had been treated badly during his first six months;  she, however, 
was
> very shy and insecure and beneath her long haired  fluffiness there was
> little substance. We named them Merlin and  Midgley.
>
> During the weeks and months that followed we blessed  the fact of having
> adopted Merlin at the same time as Midge. Without  fail he was her shadow,
> teacher and protector; without him we would have  had serious difficulties
> in getting her to do anything. Not that he  himself was perfect by any
> means. He was often clumsy - whereas she  rarely moved without knowing 
where
> she was going and how to get there,  on his own he rushed headlong into
> situations causing mayhem and  breakages galore. She quickly learned their
> meal routine, accepted her  portion, consumed it deliberately, 
methodically
> and without pause. For  him mealtime never finished; nothing edible was 
safe
> unless it was in a  container with a secure lid. So in this sense the two 
of
> them would be  opposites for some time to come, Midge light and
> insubstantial beneath  her furriness, Merlin overweight.
>
> From their first night in our  rented house in Canberra they slept 
together
> in the laundry along with  our patriarch ginger tom Woodstock. Each 
morning
> when I let them all out  the kittens as we called them would eat and drink
> from the same bowls  watched over by the older cat. The house not far from
> the NSW south  coast to which we moved in June last year is open plan and
> there is no  way they could be isolated - yet they still slept together,
> during the  winter in front of the kitchen stove where it was always warm
> and in the  warmer months anywhere that was comfortable.
>
> In late December  Merlin began to have problems with furballs. We sought
> vet help for him  and dosed him with laxatives without much success. For a
> time he stopped  eating but then gradually the difficulties seemed to cure
> themselves and  he became somewhat like his usual self. Then, early in
> January, he  collapsed and tests run by the vet said he was severely
> anaemic. I  brought him home last Friday, over the weekend he seemed to be
> improving  then early Tuesday morning he collapsed again so we rushed him
> back to  the vet.
>
> (There is a garden in the sky where the sun shines  every day, the grass 
is
> always green and there are paved and unpaved  paths for residents and
> visitors  to walk or run upon. There is a  wall around the garden, a gate 
to
> gain entrance and just inside there is  a pool kept full and alive by a
> waterfall. The guardian of the garden, a  Golden Dragon, lives in the cave
> behind the waterfall and during the day  suns himself on a handy rock from
> where he can watch over the  gate.
>
> At 6am on Wednesday 25th January 2012 the gate of the  garden opened to
> admit a tabby cat named Merlin and then closed quietly  behind him. 
Eagerly
> awaiting him was a reception party of six - a German  Shepherd (Lucy), an
> Australian Silky Terrier (Dylan Thomas), two tabby  cats (Bosun and
> Alberta), a black cat (Spot) and an alpaca named  Tourmaline.)
>
>  Roger
>




Julie

~O
<I~ love to  run
/>