Today is National Cat Day, and marks exactly the day seven years ago when she found me in the dumpster. It was National Cat Day then too. At the time I wasn’t a cat person. Only dogs. But there she was, stuck in a dumpster drain at work. Someone had just thrown her away. I freed her head from the drain and in that moment I knew I couldn’t leave without her. She was a feral cat. At first I thought I had made a mistake bringing her home. She hated me. For about two years straight. I had to wear gloves just to hold her. She was terrified of everything. People, rooms, movement. When we moved into a new home she froze for months. And now she’s everything she wasn’t back then. My best friend. Sometimes I swear we finish each other’s sentences. I know without question Phoenix is my soul animal. She’s effortlessly sailed across an ocean. She’s taken a plane ride I was sure would overwhelm her, and instead she was calm, almost as if she were enjoying it. And now she’s in her new home, my sa...