Disclaimer: Hobbits and Middle-earth and Tol Eressea and it’s inhabitants are not mine but Tolkien’s.

The Cats….. However… ARE Mine.

PURRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Giggle! PURRRRRRRRRRRR!

~*~

For a very long time after both Frodo and Sam had settled in their Tol Eressea versions of Bag End and No.3 Bagshot Row everything went on quite uneventfully. The unending peace and tranquility of that Far Green Country filled the clear crystalline air and was never disturbed.

But that did not mean there were no amusements. The Elves never ceased writing and reciting exquisite poetry and their crafts of building and weaving beautiful garments to house and clothe their lithe beautiful forms went on apace. Gandalf was forever writing, but for whose benefit he never let on. And when he wasn’t writing he was visiting Frodo and Sam or Elrond and Galadriel or any of his hundreds of other cronies. Frodo explored the lovely endless countryside and filled pages of his own with his thoughts and studies of the flora and fauna and peoples of this blissful land. And Sam... being Sam.. gardened and burrowed and built and fussed a bit over Mr. Frodo and was very happy.

The cats Tom and Goldberry had for these many years stopped reproducing. Perhaps they just never felt the need or inclination for whatever it was that slowed time to a near stop in this land had also slowed down their productivity. So they lounged all day in the warm sun if they pleased, on windowsills or floors or the garden path. And when Frodo wandered they followed him faithfully. And they never aged or changed. They were plump, their fur was lush and gleaming and soft as silk that begged for Frodo’s gentle petting. They remained as they had back in the Shire his constant loyal companions.

Till one day when they were nowhere to be found.

This was not really a cause for worry because harm came to no one here but still their unusual absence was a puzzlement to Frodo.

“Have you seen Tom and Goldberry, Sam?” Frodo asked, poking his head in at Sam’s round yellow door.

Sam looked up from the stove where he was removing some delicious-smelling scones from the oven. He set them down on the wide table with tea and cream and a big bowl of berries.

Frodo and Sam sat down and dove right into their elevensies as was their long custom.

“I do think I saw them….. Mnph..” Sam said around his mouthful…”Pardon… I saw them …rather.. sashaying off towards the patch of woods the other side of the hill early this morning.”

Frodo mulled this as he chewed.

“Indeed? Sashaying? What exactly do you mean?”

Sam looked at Frodo knowingly.

“Well… if it had been me and Rosie back in the day I know quite well what I would mean.”

Frodo smiled.

“Oh, I see! They haven’t been up to that what must be years and years.”

Sam took another mouthful and a big drink of his tea.

“Well, sir, it appears it’s time for sashaying again.”

“Hmnnn. Well this should prove to be interesting. I wonder what the elves will make of kittens?”

Sam nodded sagely.

“Now that is something I want to see.”

“Me too, Sam.” Frodo said with a twinkle.

It wasn’t easy to perturb an elf. Yet at times Frodo and Sam did engage in a bit of elf-baiting. Just to see if anything could make an elf laugh or momentarily lose their infinite calm.

“Aye! Elves and kittens. There’s a picture to ponder.”

~*~

They did not need to ponder for very long for within three months Goldberry produced a litter of 12 kittens. Twelve to fourteen being the usual number of her offspring at one go.

Frodo was delighted with them all. Each one as different from the other as they could be. Some spotted calicos of all colors, others soft grey or brown or golden, or black, white, or both. Some fluffy and some short-haired. But each was bright-eyed and lively and full of mischief as soon as they could see and paw about.

Sam, who tolerated them but never really grew to adore cats the way Frodo did was always finding them in his flower pots or tiptoeing high-wire along the kitchen beams of either Bag End or No.3. Sam would scoop them up by the armload of up to seven or eight small cats and carry them right to Frodo and the feline parents who didn’t seem to fret much over their wandering and cavorting children.

“Poor Sam.” Frodo said without a touch of real pity.

Sam put the squirming bundles of fur down on the Bag End rug. Then each bundle of fur bounded off again in search of more amusement.

Frodo giggled with delight at the naughty scampering fluff-balls.

“I do just wish they’d stay out of my pantry. That fat one drank half a pint o’ cream a’fore I could stop him.”

The roundest kitten, milky-fuzzy-all-white with huge blue eyes lolled on Sam’s foot and washed his face contentedly.

“We’ll have to call him Sam, then.” Frodo said with a grin.

Sam scowled a bit.

“That’s not funny.” But it was really and Sam picked up the purring creature who turned his licking attention to Sam’s chin.

“Well that one’s yours.” Frodo declared.

Sam sighed, feigning his alleged feline dislike. But he was petting and cuddling Small Sam raptly.

“All right, Mr. Frodo. I’ll keep him. But we ought to see about homes for the rest o’them.”

The kittens were now about two full months old and ready to find homes of their own.

Frodo’s eyes got that little wicked gleam in them.

“Elves and kittens.” he said, significantly.

“Aye. Who do we start with?”

They both thought for only a second before they both said…..

“Elrond!”

~*~

Great Elf-Lords always seemed to be deep in thought of great and unfathomable things. And so it appeared when Frodo and Sam approached Elrond who was seated in a beautifully carved chair in his private chamber at his fair Hall near the Shore.

Frodo and Sam had always had free access to Elrond and even Galadriel in token of their great sacrifices in the matter of the One Ring. So with a modicum of respect but Hobbity merriment in their expressions they stood before Elrond holding a mysterious wriggling basket between them.

“My Lord, Elrond.” Frodo said to get the Elf Lord’s attention.

‘Oh, good day, Frodo! ……Samwise.” Elrond said for all the world appearing to have just been awakened from a doze. Of course elves do not sleep but dream while fully awake. Or so they say.

“We’ve brought you a present.” Frodo went on.

“Oh, indeed? And just what might it be.” Elrond replied. Hobbit gifts, though humble, could prove of some interest to even the Great and Wise. And they were always a surprise.

“Take a look, Sir.” Sam said and offered the basket to Elrond.

Elrond reached out with a curious expression in his ageless dark eyes.

He placed the basket on his lap and looked up at the Hobbits.

“It’s moving.” Elrond observed.

The Hobbits nodded and smiled.

“I shall look beneath this covering.”

“Go on, Sir.” Sam said barely containing his excitement at seeing the first elven reaction to a cat. Of course elves must have known about cats but he didn’t think Elrond had ever seen one.

Elrond slowing and carefully removed the small blanket with his long graceful fingers and then they swore they heard him give a small gasp.

Of course elves never gasp or are astonished.

“It’s….it is…a….cat.” Elrond said attempting to hold the basket at arms length. While the calm silken smooth grey young cat, the most refined and elegant of the litter, gazed with her soft deep grey eyes filled with much knowing at her new master.

“Yes, Master Elrond.” Frodo said. “She is yours. My cats…. You know the pair of which I speak? Yes. Well they have begun to reproduce once again after all this time. And we thought to…honor… you with the pick of the litter. The very best of them all. They are very special animals of the kind bred by Tom Bombadil who gifted me with my pair long ago.”

“Ah…yes. Special indeed. Elves once held cats in suspicion and believed they were of Sauron’s making but clearly that was a…a… misapprehension.” Elrond said, studying the little creature more closely.

“There’s no spot o’ Sauron on these here cats, Sir. You may rest assured.” Sam asserted.

“Of course not. Their can be no stain of that One in this Land.”

“I would certainly hope not.” Frodo said. Even after all this time in so pure a place mention of Sauron made him feel a twinge of an old anxiety. “And these cats most certainly bear no taint of evil but are full of great goodness and loyalty. She will prove to be a long-lived and faithful companion of great worth.”

“Well then, she may stay.” Elrond gently removed the quiescent kitten from the basket and settled her on his lap where sat looking regal and serene as an elf-queen.

“Well she’s claimed him.” Sam said in a whisper to Frodo.

“As they all do.” Frodo said, pleased. No one had yet ever been able to resist one of these Bombadilian felines.

“Well we’ll leave her with you then, Lord Elrond.“ Frodo said. They after-all had more ‘deliveries’ to make. They didn’t say that they were also gifting Elrond’s beautiful wife Celebrian with a charming male kitten next.

Their delivery rounds took them most of the day.

The ‘present’ to Gandalf was met with assumed gruffness that didn’t fool the Hobbits for a second. A fluffy dark grey and white male kitten was soon ensconced on top of the Wizard’s beard kneading away at it contentedly and Gandalf enchanted with what he termed ‘the little mite of a thing’.

After placing the other kittens with every ’deserving’ elf of their acquaintance Frodo and Sam last came to Galadriel.

She was with her ladies in a deep silent grove of mallorn trees that were older than those of Lothlorien and the stars were beginning to glimmer above in the twilit sky.

“My Lady.” Frodo said with a bow to the greatest of Elven Queens. “We’ve brought you……”

‘I know what you have brought me, Frodo Baggins. It is a young cat.” She told him in her deep voice, wiser that time itself.

There was no surprising the Lady Galadriel.

Frodo sighed. He had tried.

“Yes. I was hoping you would be pleased with her.”

“I shall look at her, Frodo Baggins.” But her eyes danced as she spoke so sternly. She’d heard of this great giving of cats this day and had known to expect hers to arrive eventually.

This kitten was not in a basket but Frodo had kept her concealed snug beneath his jacket for she was the lightest and most fair of all the kittens Goldberry had ever borne. All white as the Moon at the full and eyes as deep a dark blue as the midnight sky. Indeed the starlight reflected in their liquid depths as the kitten and Elf Queen surveyed each other.

“What a beauty she is.” Galadriel said. ‘I am most pleased with your gift, Ringbearer. ‘Galadriel said using the term she saved for Frodo for only the most solemn and special of times. And then she stooped gracefully and kissed Frodo’s brow.

Then Frodo and Sam bowed again land quietly left Galadriel and her new companion.

“You just act all regal like that around the Lady to get those kisses.” Sam said, under his breath as they came out from beneath the mallorns.

Frodo laughed. It WAS true after-all.

~*~

And so elves and cats met and became friends.

Of course soon there were many, many more of the fine felines born all over the elven realm and it could be amusing to see a graceful elf trying to get his or her kitten out of a tree or out of some other playful scrape but in time the two races elven and feline found ways to understand one another and as with all beings of great nobility respect and appreciation of one another’s grace and beauty held sway in peace.

Usually.

~*~

End