From Rescued Cat to Comic Hero
Tail of Lumi
The Inspiring Real
A Kitten in the Flames
In the summer of 2020, a massive fire raged along the border of California and Oregon, decimating over 100,000 acres of forest and burning many homes. My brother, Zach Harper, worked alongside his crew to protect the airport in the little town of Happy Camp.
As the flames encroached, a tiny Siamese kitten ran from the smoke, crawled onto Zach’s shoulder, and held on tight. For the next four days, Zach fed the little stray and planned to take him back to his station. However, when the time came to pack up, there was no sign of the kitten.
A Heartfelt Reunion
Heartbroken, Zach left and fought fires for another three months, always thinking about the lost kitten. When the season ended, he took a two-hour detour on his drive home to Montana to search Happy Camp one last time. After a day of fruitless searching, Zach walked back to his car, heartbroken all over again.
Just then, a classic California hippie came out of his house with a curious look. “What are you searching for?” he asked in a gruff yet not unkind tone. Zach told him the story of the stray Siamese, and a grin spread across the man’s face. “Wait right there,” he said and disappeared into his house. When he emerged, he held a birdcage, and within was the same little cat. As soon as the cage opened, the meowing kitten scurried back up to his perch on Zach’s shoulder, and so Lumi found a new home.
Lumi’s Unique Spirit
Right away, we knew this wasn’t your average cat. From an ability to fix broken electronics with the swipe of a paw (science might explain this as static electricity, but I call it “mysterical”) to a lack of the predator instinct so prevalent in felines, Lumi is a singular creature. He inspired the idea that grew into something much bigger.
