We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Merri Darling. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Merri below.

Merri, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

It’s coming to the end of another very long day; I’m at one of my three jobs, and my mind is in a million places at once, when I receive a text message from a friend, asking me to take in a sick kitten that was found in someone’s auto shop. I hesitate. I am on the verge of saying ‘no’; after all, I have two pregnant female cats who are due to give birth any day now, a very sick old man cat, and over a dozen others in my care. We’re full. There’s no more room at the inn, but this kitten, this tiny little kitten looks so defeated and sad in the picture I receive, and, against my better judgment, I tell my friend I will take her. There is just something about this little bit that speaks to me so deeply. In the description of her condition from the finders, it sounds like she just has an upper respiratory infection – easy fix. TLC, some medication, a few good meals, and time.

I arrange for a friend to pick the kitten up from the finder, make an appointment for the little one at the clinic I work at for the following day, and head to my friends after my shift ends to triage the kitten and ensure she is stable for overnight.

I give the kitten a once-over, she’s a little girl, around 7 weeks old. Her left eye is sealed shut with discharge, she has a small, scabbed-over wound on top of her head and is a little dehydrated. We offer her food and water, but she won’t take them, so I give her some subcutaneous fluids and we settle her in for the night. My friend offered to take her, so I could get some sleep and I would collect the kitten, I gave her the name Muffin, in the morning.

2.30am hits and my phone starts ringing. It’s my friend. There is something wrong with Muffin. I race over there, still basically in my pajamas, luckily it is just around the corner, and I take one look and know whatever is going on is serious. Muffin is weak, lethargic, and open-mouth breathing. I call the emergency vet, and I tell them I’m coming, we jump in my car and race there; it’s an hours drive, but we make it, and the veterinary team takes her right back – by this point, she is lateral, she is so weak and I am so worried.

I wait and wait until a very grim face knocks on the door of the treatment room I’m in. Muffin is so very sick, her blood glucose is only 35, and she has a full-blown fever now, they’ve found a skull fracture and a nasal bone fracture, and they’re asking me what I want to do. They wouldn’t blame me if I wanted to just let her go. I ask to see her. I can’t make this decision without seeing her. She is on oxygen support in an incubator. She has an IV catheter, with dextrose and fluids and she just looks so, so small and so, so sick, but, she acknowledges me when I see her, when I pet her, and she is responding to treatment. I take some time with her, it’s a big decision to make, it’s the most difficult decision to make. Do I give her a chance, or do I let her go? But Muffin is a fighter, she got herself to help, she had been sick and injured for days by the time she was found in that auto shop.

I decided to give her 24 hours, she was incredibly poorly, but she was still fighting. She deserved 24hrs with someone else doing the heavy lifting. With fluids, antibiotics, with round-the-clock care from experienced emergency veterinarians.

When I left the hospital at 9am that morning though, I was half convinced I would never see Muffin alive again, her condition was that fragile. I sat in my car and I cried. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and afraid. Afraid for Muffin, afraid of making the wrong choice for her…

Muffin made it through those first 24 hours, but the battle wasn’t nearly over. Over the following days, still in intensive care, the true extent of her injuries would become apparent. The fracture in her skull had a wound with it that extended through her head, her nasal passage, and into her mouth. A wound went through her chin, there was a wound in her mouth that exposed the bone of her jaw, her left wrist was broken and there was an infected wound on her foot. That same left leg had a wound on it that abscessed, the abscess burst, whilst she was in hospital, and exposed the bone in her leg. Muffin had a seizure and there was no way to know if it was due to temporary swelling of the brain, from the traumatic injury she suffered, or if there was permanent damage. The wound at her nasal bone was abscessed and was cleaned out – it went right to the bone too, and it was right next to her eye – would she lose it? Would she lose her leg because of the damage from the wounds there and the break to her wrist?

So much was happening and every day we discovered a new injury, or a new abscess, but through it all, Muffin was bright, alert, and purring after those first 24 hours, she was eating like a champ, once her pain was under control and her antibiotics were working. She was determined. She was gaining weight. She wanted to behave like any normal kitten, even though her tiny leg was bandaged to the shoulder and she had open wounds on her head and face.

Muffin’s stay in hospital, up to this point was estimated to cost over $8,000. I started a Gofundme. When I took Muffin on, I had no idea this was what would happen, that she would be so hurt and so sick. There was no way the Menagerie could absorb that cost without help.

After four days in intensive care, Muffin was well enough to be transferred to my clinic, where she was hospitalised and continued to receive treatment. She was still on fluids, but we were able to give her oral medications. She had a special spot in our isolation ward because she had so many infections and was not vaccinated, and everyone quickly fell in love with Muffin, with her spark and determination.

It feels like we should almost be at the happy ending of this story now, but life is rarely that straightforward, and there was yet another hurdle for Muffin to overcome. The wounds on the top of her head, and next to her eye were continuing, despite antibiotics, to produce and leak puss, so Muffin was sedated to have them cleaned and washed out. I arrived for my shift at work that day and they were finishing up the procedure, they had managed to clean out a lot of infected tissue, so I waited, with Muffin, for her to begin to wake up, and I waited. I tried to do my job, but I was struggling to focus. Why wasn’t she waking up? Her heart rate was good, but she wasn’t oxygenating well, her drugs were reversed, yet she still wasn’t awake. I tried to remain calm, I tried to remain positive but Muffin would not come around. Muffin’s catheter was no longer patent, it had to be removed – had some of the drugs she had been given to make her sleep gone into her subcutaneous space, is that why she wouldn’t wake, it takes so much longer for the body to metabolise them that way? Had something during the procedure caused her brain to swell and is that why she wouldn’t come to? Had she reacted to the narcotics used to sedate her? I started to come apart, I burst into tears. This tiny kitten had only been in my life for 10 days at this point but I loved her deeply and I couldn’t bear to see her comatose because that is what she was. She was in a coma, and there was a chance she would never wake up. How could this be it, how could this be what took her from me? The doctors worked, and I helped, I had to, to try and bring her out of the coma. The narcotics were reversed again, and again. Muffin was given mannitol, in case there was swelling in her brain. We kept her warm, we kept her hydrated, we monitored her vitals and we waited. I was told the mannitol was her ‘hail Mary’.

Finally, eventually, Muffin began to wake up. It had been hours. We kept her on oxygen, we kept her on heat support and she slowly came back to herself. 6 hours later, Muffin was on her feet and back to normal. My heart was still racing.

Muffin has gone through so much, she endured daily bandage changes for her face and leg for weeks, and she did it all with a purr and a Churu. Believe it or not, it’s only been 5 weeks, Muffin is almost completely healed now; she’s finally getting vaccinated and able to be a kitten. Her fur is growing back – she finally looks like a kitten again!

She is the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. Saying yes to taking her, giving her those first 24 hours, and waiting for her to wake up. It was worth it all. Mighty Muffin is thriving.

Her total vet bill for her emergency hospitalisation and her hospitalisation at my clinic comes to $11,000.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always dreamed of working with animals and in 2017, I began the process of making that dream come true, beginning training as a veterinary nurse, back home in the UK. In September 2019, I gained my green card and came to the United States, taking up the position of primary animal caretaker at Saveafox Rescue in Minnesota, where I have now been for five years.

In late May 2021, I rescued my first fox – Marvellous Ianto; he was only 3 weeks old when rescued from a fur farm, and was the only survivor in his litter. It was love at first sight.

Later in 2021, I finally took the plunge and started ‘Marvellous Menagerie’ to help Ianto and animals like him. The Menagerie is a neonatal kitten nursery and animal rescue, with a focus on captive-bred foxes. Our mission is to provide neonatal kittens, captive-bred, non-releasable wildlife, and domestic animals a sanctuary to live, heal, and grow; whilst also educating the public on spay/neuter programs and the cruelty behind fur and factory farming.

Our current goals are to finish raising the funds to purchase a property, so we may bring all of our residents together, we have a generous donor willing to match up to $30,000, and to get our Trap Neuter Return (TNR) program – Luna’s Legacy, off the ground.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I have been incredibly lucky on my journey in rescue; not only have I been the primary animal caretaker at Saveafox Rescue in Minnesota for 5 years now, but I have been lucky enough to meet and spend time with so many supporters and fans. I have been able to demonstrate through my role there my love and dedication to the animals in my care, and, when I took the next logical step in starting Marvellous Menagerie, so many of those supporters, those friends, cheered me on and gave their support to me too.

The ability to allow people to get to know me from that platform has been invaluable on my rescue journey and I will never be able to repay that or adequately express my gratitude to everyone who has been in my corner since day one.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before my life with animals truly began, I was a business analyst in financial services for over 10 years. I worked at multiple financial institutions on both a permanent and contract basis, and, for a long time, I loved the work I did. Fixing things that were broken, building something from nothing, solving puzzles, etc. but in 2017, I became ill and took some time off, during that period, I realised there was something important missing, I reflected on what truly made me happy, where I wanted to see myself in another 10 years and it was not as a business analyst.

I wanted to continue to fix things, to unravel puzzles, but I wanted to do it with animals. They had always been a part of my life and I had always had a deep connection, and love for all of them; so began my journey to becoming a veterinary nurse, back in the UK. Life, however, does not always see fit to give you the things that you want in the way that you want them, and I found myself moving to America in 2019. It was another pivot, so I began studying to be a veterinary assistant instead, and taking as many courses and continuous education modules and getting as much hands-on experience with as many animals as I could.

Mikayla Raines, who founded Saveafox Rescue, and I had been friends for a few years by this point, and, when she needed more hands in Minnesota, I made my way there and have been there ever since. I also work as a vet assistant!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.marvellousmenagerie.org
• Instagram: @marvellous_menagerie
• Facebook: @marvellousianto
• Youtube: marvellousianto3759
• Other: Muffin’s Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bsggn-help-save-muffins-lifeOur $30k matched fundraiser for our property: http://spot.fund/jtvn3sc