I remembered the name well—very well. I probably remember all the names of people who have adopted a kitten or a dog from me. It is very likely that the acquaintance was made through Facebook, and thus, several lucky animals travelled to different parts of the Earth and escaped the misery of stray life.

I remembered Irini’s name very well, and her last name, of course, but how it is written on Facebook: with E or with me, with H or with Ch, Greek or English. It took me about five minutes to find the right combination since we talked infrequently, so it didn’t appear in the top search options.

I looked at her photos and felt like she was such a friend. I also read a few of her posts and liked some exciting pages she follows. That’s all, friend, and let’s barely know each other.

As many ‘awesome’ stories as I have, this particular one always comes to mind first when I recall it, especially now that I have started writing about them. Every story is unique, and this is the first of the unique ones.

I’m looking at the photos we’ve shared to create this article, and we’re getting emotional. Emotion for Gatara, who was saved, emotion for the life she leads, for the man who happened to her, and above all, for our connection. Let’s see each other for a while once a year, but the connection between me and Irene was made and remains. This is also the beauty of human symbiosis—the connection to something beautiful.

Irini shared her story with us. He had sent it to me two years ago, and yes, it took me that long to upload it here!!!!

My black cat was born in Syros in 2015. Probably from an Alaniara mom, she grew up playing with her little brothers, and I imagine her to be a fearless little one, curious about new things and adventurous. The English say that “curiosity killed the cat,” and it seems that this saying was not confirmed in Chuck, as Manos found her stuck in a boat with tar at the DEI factory and saved her.

I saw her for the first time on Facebook: saved from certain death, cleaned and ready for adoption, and I said: this is my cat. I don’t know what bewitched me; I wanted to live with this little animal who was so lucky! Thus, Mazout travelled from Syros to Athens so that we could live together. I changed her name; I called her Zambeta; we spent the expected first 1-2 days of adjustment and slowly became friends. We moved to a new house, she got used to my friends, she welcomed my man, we even changed her name and called her Minio, and soon I realized that the one who “found her port” out of the two of us might finally be me!

Two years after we first met, we got on the plane together with Minio and started a new chapter of life: New Jersey! It endured 15 hours in a kitty bag, 3 airport checks, 2 flights that seemed like a century, and 2 temporary homes before we – finally – settled into our home. While I thought she would have an unimaginable difficulty with the change of environment and would make sure I understood it, she did the exact opposite: she remained calm and tender, facing every new thing with curiosity and at the end of the day, she would snuggle up next to me and purr to sleep. I don’t know if I would be so attached to another animal; I think we were meant to meet Minio. What I know for sure, though, is that this black cat stuck to the tar brought me good luck!