I’ve never had a real pet. I’ve had a few fish (all named Jango), which died about 2 weeks after I got them. I also had a hermit crab at one point, but after a month he just kind of gave up and proceeded to crawl out of his shell and died. My entire family is deathly allergic to dogs so I’ve never had one of those.

Despite never actually owning one, though, I’ve been around dogs my whole life. Every single relative of mine has a dog, and I would see my friends’ dogs when I went over to their houses. They were cute, happy, and generally nice to be around. And so, without ever owning a dog in my life, I labeled myself a “dog person”.

One day I got a random call from one of my neighbors. They told me that they were leaving for New York the next day and needed someone to watch their cat, Hudson, for the week. Out of the kindness of my heart, and because they offered to pay me, I agreed to the job.

After popping a few extra Allegra to prepare me for the allergy onslaught I was about to face, I walked over to my neighbor’s house, unsure of what exactly to expect. Opening the door, the house was dark. As my eyes adjusted to the low light, I jumped about 5 feet in the air when I saw a pair of green eyes staring at me from a corner. I flipped on a light, and there she was.

The little black cat walked over to me, and I was nervous. I didn’t know if she was gonna bite me, scratch me, or give me rabies. Big surprise, she didn’t do any of those things. She just kind of brushed up against my leg and purred.
Since then, I have taken care of my neighbor’s cat a million times. She’s an outdoor cat, so we would go on walks around my yard together, and for a while she would even wait outside my door for me to say hi on my way to school in the morning. She’s loving, fun to be around and really cute. And she has converted me into a cat person.

Hudson has taught me a whole lot. I heard somewhere that the mark of a good cat is one that acts like a dog– but Hudson is unmistakably a cat. She will show you affection when she wants, and when she doesn’t she will disappear for hours at a time, out into the world. But the more effort I put in to spend time with her, the more and more time she would inevitably spend with me.

Coming into high school, I would say that I was pretty close-minded. I had a tight group of friends and wasn’t interested in doing a whole lot outside of my required school work. Much like I just assumed I would like dogs without ever owning one, I assumed that I liked having a lot of free time without ever pushing myself to have a full schedule.

In the same way, I started taking care of Hudson without any cat-sitting knowledge, I joined the cross country team at South without any running experience. And, I ended up being a captain by my senior year. I have made some of my closest friends on that team, and it really opened my eyes to how incredible extracurriculars can be. Since then, I’ve joined a lot of clubs, met a lot of new people and made a lot of friends that I otherwise would have never even talked to in my time here.

I still don’t know what I want to do with my life, but that is totally okay with me. If Hudson the cat has taught me anything, it’s that all I need to do is keep pushing myself to try new things (even if I think I will probably hate it), and eventually I will find what I love. So thank you, Hudson.