Merlin was found in our parking lot at 2 weeks and officially joined the team at just 2 months old. Now, almost 5 years later, he has earned several titles with his fun little antics at The Lair. While most kitties get to lounge around at home, Merlin was put to work earning his first title as King of Comic Pull with his weekly devotion to "help" us do comic pull. Shortly after that, he earned the honorific of Merlin the Destroyer of Boxes for his dedication in trying to fit into every box that came in. His perseverance in being chased around the store by numerous children and toppling the best of army terrain on the mini tables gained him the new label of Merlin the Mighty. But his most prestigious honorific of Protector of The Lair has been earned many times over; from being here every day welcoming pets and uplifting the spirit of everyone to guarding the store at night while still finding time to destroy all bugs that dared to enter his territory. Merlin has been a big part of our store and community since the day he showed up. While he is always at work, he has had it pretty good here as well; with all the lovin', treats, and toys he gets from everyone, he has been one content kitty.

Over the last few months, things have been going a bit downhill for Merlin. We have had several tests and images done, and it has been discovered that he has a mass on his spinal cord that is pressing down on his nerves, which is impeding his ability to walk. Because of the location of the tumor, it eluded the doctors until several tests were done. In addition, they could not rule out that he might have cancer. Almost all of his bloodwork shows everything to be within the normal range except an elevation was his lymph nodes, which could indicate he has cancer. The more his symptoms started showing, we thought it best he come home and allow him to "retire" from the store starting in 2026. As you can imagine, that was a hard decision as Merlin hasn’t known any other home other than The Lair.

Now comes the potentially good news... Even though Merlin wasn’t here, he has been getting treatment and has shown improvement. As his name Merlin the Mighty suggests he is a fighter and with his improvement in moving around on his own, increased eating, and overall demeanor the vet's opinion of whether we should proceed with surgery/further treatment has changed from when we first started talking about treatment options. Of course, there are no guarantees as there never are when it comes to things like this; however, initially, things were looking really bleak for Merlin. After numerous tests they have found a way to remove the tumor. However, with the costs of the testing to get us here and the future surgery and recovery fees, we are asking for assistance.