Gandalf the White [redux]

matiescat says: I received a call from my vet saying that someone had brought in a four-day-old kitten that they found in the road in Stellenbosch Town (Western Cape, South Africa). As I am equipped to raise such young kittens due to my volunteer work caring for the cats and kittens on Stellenbosch University campus, the tiny baby was placed in my care. To this day no one knows how he came to be all alone in the middle of the road... all we knew was that his was a little fighter. Accordingly he was named Gandalf the White. Gandalf is the powerful wizard in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. In Old Norse, Gandalf means roughly magic elf/being or wizard. And specifically, Gandalf the White appeared when Gandalf the Grey "returned" after his “death” as a significantly more powerful figure, Gandalf the White -- just like our strong little Gandalfie who appeared magically out of nowhere.

As he still needed to be fed every two hours, I had to take him to work with me for the first few weeks. Gandalf crept deep into my heart very quickly and I knew within the first few days that I would not be able to part with this unique little kitten. He is a very inquisitive cat -- and to this day almost always has a slightly surprised look on his face as if he's asking, What's going on? What you doing? Where you been? And he investigates everything and anything -- not scared of a single thing. When he still needed to be bottle-fed regularly, I used to carry him around with me in a big sturdy recycle-friendly shopping bag. And as a result, he loves getting into any bag (more so than cats usually do). You can't put down a bag without him getting in it with a look of, Where we going now? He also loves water! You will often find him in the basin just cooling down, or he'll sit with me when I bathe and just soak his tail in the water. Now just over a year old, he has grown into an absolutely gorgeous cat -- a real Mr. Personality!