Kathleen Tucker from Ship Cove writes about her cat Finnegan:
Finnegan was an extraordinary cat, perhaps because he had been rescued from Sheila’s Brush, a March snowstorm that blew across the northern peninsula in 2011. Len Tucker and his brother Bob were hauling wood on Shoal Arm Hill, on Route 437, when a miserable little cat with a voice like a banshee awakened them to his presence under the snowmobile tarp where he was taking shelter. He was dirty and starving—very likely a victim of a heartless owner who no longer wanted him—and was begging to be taken home and cared for.
He spent 2 ½ years at our house in perfect contentment. He followed Len everywhere: down to the beach, on long walks through the community, and enjoyed visiting at friends’ houses. He introduced himself to all the cats and dogs in the community, and even touched noses with a bull moose in the back yard. If we went for a drive in the community, Len would open the car door and Finn would leap into the back seat, and ride with his paws on the window, watching the world go by. He even went for rides in the rowboat and speedboat, standing with paws on the gunwale sniffing the salt-sea air.
He knew how to fend for himself, bringing capelin and cod’s heads up from the beach, or bringing home wild game from his rambles in the woods behind our house.
One day in September Finn stopped eating and drinking. He didn’t seem to be in any kind of distress; he just looked at his food and water dishes as if he didn’t know what they were for. We gave him water with a dropper, but he never regained his appetite, and died quietly at 3:15 in the morning on September 30, 2013.
We miss you Finnegan. You were an extraordinary cat.
–Len and Kathleen Tucker
Ship Cove
