Some brief anecdotes from students whose Stanford experience has been impacted by Finnegan, the recently deceased Rinconada family cat:
“I met him one cold evening when he wouldn’t stop meowing outside my door, [wanting] to be let in. I figured he was lost and someone must be missing him … He made himself right at home by immediately racing upstairs and burrowing into the comforter on my bed. He was sweet … His contented purring formed the [background music] to my paper-writing and he made me realize that I missed having a loving pet waiting at home at the end of a long, hard day.” — Kiah Thorn ‘12 M.A ‘13
“I was walking home late at night down Mayfield, feeling pretty crappy after a long day and expecting a longer night, and [Finn] was just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, almost as if he were waiting for someone — and [he] just got up and started walking with me! At this point I thought maybe he was lost, even though cats don’t really get lost. So now I followed him, to make sure he’d be alright. And he would stop and let me pet him, then start again. And then stop and start. Until finally I realized we were all the way in Wilbur! This cat done brought me home.” — Dilia Olivo ‘15
“Once, my friend and I were walking by the basketball court next to Kimball, and Finn approached us with something in his mouth. When my friend and I got closer, it turned out to be a rabbit. Finn dropped the rabbit at our feet, took a step back and sat down. He was looking at us, apparently very proud of himself. Perhaps this was his gift to us Kimballers to win back our love.” — Tae Shin Lee ‘15
“I worked at Wilbur Front Desk this past summer and Finnegan used to stop in to say hello all the time, meowing outside the doors until we let him in. Some days, usually in the morning, he’d come in and sit on a swivel chair behind the desk for a couple hours at a time. We used to pretend he was our boss and would ask him what he thought we should do when we had a problem.” — Tess Dufrechou ‘16
Have more memories of Finnegan to share? Feel free to email Catherine Zaw at czaw13 ‘at’ stanford ‘dot’ edu to add your story.
Contact Chelsey Sveinsson at svein ‘at’ stanford ‘dot’ edu.