Finagler Wilmington

Photo Credit: Mimi Vang Olsen/New York City

Finagler, a.k.a. "Poke" came into my life on a rainly July 4th weekend. I was visiting my friend Brian in Delaware, and we were on a long country walk when all of a sudden a scraggly, emaciated kitten, too young to be from its mother, jumped out in front of us, stopping us in our tracks. We were surrounded by miles of soybean fields, and there were no farms or houses nearby. We looked all over for a mommy cat, and took him home to warm him up and feed him from a dropper, and then visited the nearby farms to see if they'd lost any kittens, but they had not. Long story short, I had planned to go back to New York on the train, but they didn't allow animals, so instead, Brian drove me to my sister's in New Jersey, and from there my brother-in-law drove him to New York City. The rest is history. I took Poke to the vet, nursed him back to health, and I was blessed to have him with me for the next nine years, until it was his time to leave us, on a rare, full lunar eclipse. He will always live on in my heart and in my life.

I have many photographs of Finagler, but I thought it would be nice to use this painting that my friend Mimi made of both Fred and him at home. It looks exactly like them both, and it captures that twinkle that Poke always had in his eye.