How Angel and I Met
It was a normal Saturday afternoon on May 5th, 2018, when everything changed. I had just walked into the pet store where I worked, doing what I always did first when I walked in. I glanced toward the cages that held a few cats from the Michigan Humane Society waiting to be adopted. I noticed a small group of kittens playing together, but then I looked up and heard a loud, desperate meow that instantly caught my attention. The sound came from a cat named Angel. She was pacing along the front of her cage, rubbing against the metal bars calling directly to me.
I walked over and began petting her through the bars, and she leaned into my touch like she had been waiting just for me. I clocked in, but I couldn't stay away from her. An hour into my shift, she was still crying for attention, so I finally opened the cage and held her. She immediately rolled and climbed all over me like we had known each other forever. My manager walked up, surprised, and told me that earlier that morning, Angel had refused to move or let anyone touch her. She hadn't eaten or drank anything and had even peed herself from fear. Yet in that moment she was cuddling in my arms, purring like she had found her person. I spent the whole day with her and decided at lunch that I had to adopt her. At the time, I didn't think of the costs. I knew it just had to happen. But that day in particular was free cat adoption day. It truly felt like the universe had brought us together on purpose.
