A Hug, A Cat, and a Cold Morning

This past Monday started off like any other—slow, with a cup of coffee in hand. Amanda, my wife and the co-founder of Zoomies, was getting ready for a trip to Fayetteville for an eye exam. (She’s almost blind, but you didn’t hear that from me.)

With the house to myself, I settled in to tackle some administrative work for the organization—emails, content creation, and our newly launched blog and newsletter. But about 30 minutes after Amanda left, my phone rang.

"Hi, husband… soooo… Kaye caught Pixie."

Pixie was a cat we had been invited to help catch and spay so she wouldn’t have more kittens. A drop trap had been deployed, and since it was cold and wet outside, Kaye was worried about her. Amanda, knowing she’d be gone for a while, asked me to drop everything and go help.

Now, this wasn’t an unusual request. Nor was it a big ask. Admin and content could wait. I threw on my shoes, grabbed my coffee, and drove over to Kaye’s place. In hindsight, I probably should have worn pants—it was nippy out, and the ground was soggy.

When I arrived, I met Kaye for the first time in her front yard, and together we walked out to the pasture where a small barn-like structure stood. Underneath a drop trap, covered in a moving blanket, was Pixie. Kaye, understandably concerned, asked how I was going to get her into a trap for transport.

About two minutes later, I held up the transfer trap and said, “Like this.” Pixie was in.

We strolled back toward my van. Poor Kaye was visibly cold, but that didn’t stop her from expressing her gratitude. See, Kaye loves her animals, including Pixie, who lives on her property. But at this point in life, she needed a little help—some extra hands and know-how. And she wasn’t shy about how much our help meant to her. Before I left, she asked if she could give me a hug.

Of course, I said yes.

Driving away, I thought about how something so simple—helping someone trap a cat—could create such a genuine human connection. A moment of warmth on a cold morning.

There have been many people like Kaye in Zoomies’ first year, and every one of them reminds us why we do what we do. Helping people help animals is part of our mission—it’s our joy.