Little Merlin is quite a handful.

[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.