My mom adopted Harris after one of her students found the cat outside and in rough shape. The girl’s other pets didn’t get along with Harris (who they were calling Pancake). If they couldn’t find a home for the cat, they were going to have to take her to a shelter. The student convinced my mom that she should take Harris in. Luke immediately fell in love with Harris. He would call my mom to check in on her and always went to find Harris first, whenever we visited.

So about a year before we actually moved back to New York, my mom and Luke struck up a deal. After we were settled in our new house, Harris would come live with us and be Luke’s cat. Luke is an amazing pet owner. He never complains about cleaning up after her or having to feed her. Because of her time as a stray, if Harris gets all of her food for the day at once, she gobbles it up and gets sick. So Harris gets fed four times a day (she came with an automatic feeder that Luke can set up on days he’s in school or if we’re going to miss a feeding).

He wanted to use all of his Christmas money to buy her a new bed. She had two already, and I convinced him we could just relocate one of the ones she already had. Not to mention half of the time we find her sleeping in ridiculous not-cat-bed places. We got her a new brush instead.

In that last picture Luke told me he was trying to read Harris’s mind. I told him she was probably thinking how much she loves you. Luke said, “That’s funny, I was thinking the same thing.”

Harris really hit the jackpot with Luke.