He adopted the two-week-old kitten and gave her the name “Miss Hap” because he explained, “she was born at the wrong place at the wrong time”. There’s a juxtaposition between the soldier and the human. He’s dressed for war but hasn’t lost the ability to care for another living creature. In the photograph, Praytor is seen leaning against sandbags with a pistol holstered to his hip and his helmet resting on his knee. In his left hand, he holds a kitten, nursing it delicately with a medicine dropper. Praytor wrote that the kitten was one of two who were orphaned after a soldier shot their mother for “yeowling”. The marine who adopted the other kitten killed it after rolling over on it in his sleep. But Praytor’s kitten survived. He fed her on meat from ration cans. After Praytor left her to return home, she became something of a mascot for the company’s public information office. Praytor believed another marine, corporal Conrad Fisher, eventually adopted her and brought her home to the United States.
(Photo credit: Marine Corps Archives). Notify me of new posts by email.
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