I had been considering messaging or emailing some people who co-admin a project with me and had been quiet on it for awhile (which I got so distracted by this I still haven’t done that yet, this many weeks later). So I looked at the profile of one of them and she had a post that she need to rehome her 16 year-old cat due to moving out of the country.  And not only was this the same situation in which Merlin‘s previous person had been in, but the cat’s name was Nimue.  For those who are familiar with Arthurian legends, you know this seemed kismet. We had already met this cat, as well, several years ago.

So I PMed her to let her know we’d take her, even though our situation was really perfect for her….she’s not been around other cats, Merlin also doesn’t seem to like other cats. More he seems afraid of them.  Which isn’t a bad thing. And this one might enchant him into a tree so…  Anyway, we were a backup plan but the first person didn’t work out. So on August 31, 2017 we went to pick up the tiny enchantress.

The Shakespeare quote from A Midsummer’s Night Dream, “And though she be but little, she is fierce,” is point on.  Nimue is only about 7 or 8 lbs (Merlin is 18 lbs) and was totally hostile towards these human kidnappers at first. She had, still mostly has, Merlin in terror from behind the door. She now wants love and snuggles from us, for as long as she wants. She still is defensive of Merlin near her door (we are feeding them both somewhat near it and now also put out catnip and play with them nearby). He’s getting a little braver.

We’re taking things slowly, so it may be awhile before they are integrated. We are also starting to use essences through Jackson Galaxy as well as following the advice he gives on introducing cats. We’re now glad we have watched a lot of My Cat From Hell, which we had done purely for the entertainment value as we had a perfectly angelic cat and no real plans for another.  But now we do have another and while she can obviously be sweet to humans, other cats are another matter. We are hoping for peaceful co-existence.

Sometimes one fuzzy thing leads to another and when we got home from picking her up, we found out about Cairbre.

It’s now nearly New Years 2020. In this time she has become more and more loving towards us, although it does appear she favors Aaron, which is fine as Merlin slightly favors me. And things remain generally the same between her and Merlin. She makes sure he keeps his distance and as long as he does he can live. But to be honest, I think a lot of this is theatrics and when we lose one the other is going to miss them. In the winter she tends to favor the linen closet for a bed on most nights. 

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Clipart cat from Joelle’s Sacred Grove