"Still no sign of your fingers?" I asked, wincing at Cass.

"No," she said with a sigh. "This is the longest they've ever been gone. Maybe they were finally arrested for stealing sunglasses. Do you think that's the problem? Not the stealing sunglasses part, but the fact that I'm missing too many things in my life for a familiar to adopt me?"

"I don't think that. Your familiar is surely out there. Studmuffin wandered into my life when I least expected, and it was snowing ...