I haven't posted about Marvin much here, but he is my avatar here, so this is probably worth posting:
Marvin G. Nguyen-Whitfield was born September 2002. He lived in Annapolis with his owner until s/he passed away in 2014. He was fostered through BARCS Animal Shelter in Baltimore by Cheryll Bankert Ratzsch until we stumbled about him at an Adoption Day at Unleashed in the Federal Hill neighborhood. We were having mice problem in the row home we were renting. It seemed like an opportunistic time to adopt a cat. Wendy had severe cat allergies and had read that cats with lighter-colored fur may produce less dander. There were a bunch of cute black kittens and cats there that day as well. Wendy spotted his wheat-color fur and came up to Cheryll. She brought him out of his cage for me to pet him and extolled his many virtues. Wendy asked how old he was she said 12-years-old! Whoa. We weren’t sure but took Cheryll’s contact information. Weeks later we e-mailed her secretly hoping that he would have already been adopted. He wasn’t. We visited Marvin again Cheryll’s home and Marvin put on a show! He was playing non-stop and was incredibly interactive with us. We felt it was kismet. We officially picked him up on December 28th, a post-call day from the hospital and the rest was history.
He was an excellent mouser. He caught three mice total for us. Although he kept us up at night at times, he kept Wendy great company during her post-call naps. He was excellent on long car trips as was demonstrated from our move from Baltimore to Cincinnati for Wendy’s fellowship. When we moved to Minneapolis, the flight attendant was also a cat lover, so she allowed him on Doug’s lap for some of the flight. It was likely his first time on a plane in first class, but you never know about his life before us. We then acquired Garfield L. Nguyen-Whitfield, a perfect brother to Marvin, who was patient with Marvin’s occasional grumpiness.
Not long after we moved to Minneapolis July 2016 Marvin was clinically diagnosed with IBD/gastrointestinal lymphoma. At the time of diagnosis, he also fought through a battle of pancreatitis and did very well for about 2 years on medications for the IBD/GI lymphoma until he started declining slowly September 2018. He gave a courageous battle, but his other co-morbidities had progressed. We were taking him back and forth to the UMN Veterinary Medical Center to try to find a path forward. In the end, it was too much for his body to take and he was beginning to suffer so instead of putting him through another hospitalization so soon, we decided to let him cross over the rainbow. He passed away peacefully in Doug’s arms at Modern Love on June 25th, 2019.
We are grief-stricken, but we have Garfield and Odie to comfort us. Thank you to University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine especially Dr. Corie Borchert, Come, Sit, Stay, especially Shannon, and Dr. Donald and her team at Modern Love Veterinary in the North loop for caring for Marvin.
Marvin G. Nguyen-Whitfield was born September 2002. He lived in Annapolis with his owner until s/he passed away in 2014. He was fostered through BARCS Animal Shelter in Baltimore by Cheryll Bankert Ratzsch until we stumbled about him at an Adoption Day at Unleashed in the Federal Hill neighborhood. We were having mice problem in the row home we were renting. It seemed like an opportunistic time to adopt a cat. Wendy had severe cat allergies and had read that cats with lighter-colored fur may produce less dander. There were a bunch of cute black kittens and cats there that day as well. Wendy spotted his wheat-color fur and came up to Cheryll. She brought him out of his cage for me to pet him and extolled his many virtues. Wendy asked how old he was she said 12-years-old! Whoa. We weren’t sure but took Cheryll’s contact information. Weeks later we e-mailed her secretly hoping that he would have already been adopted. He wasn’t. We visited Marvin again Cheryll’s home and Marvin put on a show! He was playing non-stop and was incredibly interactive with us. We felt it was kismet. We officially picked him up on December 28th, a post-call day from the hospital and the rest was history.
He was an excellent mouser. He caught three mice total for us. Although he kept us up at night at times, he kept Wendy great company during her post-call naps. He was excellent on long car trips as was demonstrated from our move from Baltimore to Cincinnati for Wendy’s fellowship. When we moved to Minneapolis, the flight attendant was also a cat lover, so she allowed him on Doug’s lap for some of the flight. It was likely his first time on a plane in first class, but you never know about his life before us. We then acquired Garfield L. Nguyen-Whitfield, a perfect brother to Marvin, who was patient with Marvin’s occasional grumpiness.
Not long after we moved to Minneapolis July 2016 Marvin was clinically diagnosed with IBD/gastrointestinal lymphoma. At the time of diagnosis, he also fought through a battle of pancreatitis and did very well for about 2 years on medications for the IBD/GI lymphoma until he started declining slowly September 2018. He gave a courageous battle, but his other co-morbidities had progressed. We were taking him back and forth to the UMN Veterinary Medical Center to try to find a path forward. In the end, it was too much for his body to take and he was beginning to suffer so instead of putting him through another hospitalization so soon, we decided to let him cross over the rainbow. He passed away peacefully in Doug’s arms at Modern Love on June 25th, 2019.
We are grief-stricken, but we have Garfield and Odie to comfort us. Thank you to University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine especially Dr. Corie Borchert, Come, Sit, Stay, especially Shannon, and Dr. Donald and her team at Modern Love Veterinary in the North loop for caring for Marvin.
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