For most of my life, I thought that I was a dog person. I begged my mom for a dog practically every day up until I was twelve. I even read the dog encyclopedia hoping that if I could become an expert on dogs that I could magically have one. To my great distress, even that didn't work and I remained dog-less. Not to say that I didn't have my share of colorful pets, because I surely did. When I was very young, I seized every opportunity to bring home fish from the fair, eventually having to house them in salad bowls. \

I brought home two African Dwarf frogs on the last day of fifth grade, to my mother's shock. They ended up exceeding their predicted lifespan by 300 percent (no idea how that happened). I even received three Red Ear Slider turtles for Christmas one year. I was so excited that I bought a book about them and luckily found out that Red Ear Sliders carry salmonella that is transferable by touch. Turns out that information would once again become useful junior year of high school when someone found a turtle in the courtyard and I saw that it was a Red Ear Slider and urgently yelled at them not to touch it.

After a while I realized that I could run an aquarium with the number of aquatic pets I had over the years. Not to say I didn't like my turtles, but I so desperately wanted a pet that I could form a real connection with. I wanted a dog so badly when I was little that I had closed myself off to other options. It took a visit to my uncle and seeing his new kitten for me to realize that cats are pretty cool too. I visited the animal shelter with my family and instantly fell in love with my now-cat Arya whose name proves how much I love Game of Thrones.

I spent all my life thinking I was a dog person and it took until the middle of high school for me too realize I could be a pretty good cat lady too. I honestly think I would have hopped on the cat train sooner if I hadn't watched so much Tom and Jerry when I was younger. Between Lucifer in Cinderella and the evil cat that was trying to catch the smurfs, cats get a pretty bad rep in media.

My cat is my constant companion and even though she has been hanging out with my sister more since I went to college, she will always have a place in my heart. Arya has also taught me that sometimes our expectations can be wrong and embracing other options can give us an amazing reward we didn't even know was there.