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His meow would almost be pitiable, if he weren't so full of energy and spunk just two weeks after his rescuer and veterinarian debated whether his injuries were so severe that he couldn't be saved.

"Chipper's" head is tilted to the right, the result of a fracture to the neck that apparently didn't damage the spinal cord nerves. Both of the miracle kitten's front legs were badly mangled and broken, but he gets around, if a little awkwardly. His right eye now appears to be functioning, even if it is damaged.

"I think his food bill is going to be more than his surgery bill," said Dr. Salvatore Zeitlin, who operated on Chipper three times after the kitten was taken to his South Dixie Animal Hospital in West Palm Beach, Fla. "He just gets stronger and better with time."

Maury Swee of Boca Raton, Fla., who runs a no-kill shelter, the 10th Life Sanctuary, says he got a call from an anonymous woman on the morning of June 20. The woman said a kitten had been asleep in a wood chipper that was turned on by workers. Would Swee help?

"This little kitten has pretty much used up his nine lives," said Swee, who along with his staff and volunteers cares for more than 700 cats, most of them unsuitable for adoption, at his sanctuary.

When held, Chipper purrs away happily. Both Swee and Zeitlin said the kitten would make a good pet for someone who wanted to adopt, knowing he may have mobility and other health issues.

Chipper may have been feral, or the victim of an accident or cruelty, Swee suspects. Either way, he has become a darling at the clinic. He needs one more surgery, a cosmetic one, to repair skin damage on top of his head, where there is a big, dark scab.

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