Fingolfin's mother was a local stray, a regular at my stray feeder. She was very wild; I'd never gotten a good look at her except through the window, since she would run if she caught a glimpse of me. However, in late spring of 2002 she started bringing her latest litter of three kittens to the feeder. Two were tabby-and-white, one black-and-white. I called the black-and-white one Fëanor, and the other two Fingolfin and Finarfin.

I tried to coax the kittens into trusting me, with only very limited success. Fëanor was always the wildest of the three, and as he grew up he only visited the feeder occasionally and didn't stay long. Finarfin remained shy until one day he suddenly -- literally overnight -- decided to be friendly. After that he was very sweet, fond of being petted, and he even let me pick him up. He still didn't spend a lot of time in the garage, only visiting for a while in the evenings. His sudden conversion to friendliness and the very sleek look his coat was taking on made me think that someone else was also paying attention to him, and he was dividing his time between his two "homes".

Fingolfin was still very shy, but he spent almost all his time in my garage. I wanted to adopt both him and Finarfin, and I delayed taking Finarfin into the house because I hoped his friendly attitude would influence his brother. Unfortunately, Finarfin vanished suddenly in November. He disappeared on the same day that Beorn's mother did; since there were signs that Finarfin was getting attention from someone else, there is some hope that he -- and possibly Beorn's mother as well -- were adopted into a home, but I'll probably never know.

After his brother disappeared, though, Fingolfin finally decided to trust me. I was able to pet and handle him, and finally around the beginning of December I took him inside. He settled in well, though he's still a bit spooky about being picked up. He and Beorn, who is just a few months younger, are good friends and engage in a lot of rowdy games together.