They connected over a 'poorly drawn cat.' Three years later, he crossed an ocean to marry her.

Grant Schroeder and Emma Ferguson's intercontinental love story began with the drawing of a cat. Schroeder had come across the popular "poorly drawn cats" account on Twitter where artist Heloísa Nora shares very simple recreations of photos of people's cats. Despite not having a lot of detail, Nora's cat portraits always capture the true essence of the felines they mimic. Being a doting cat parent himself, Schroeder reached out to Nora to commission a drawing of his cat, Luna, who was then a cute little black kitten with green eyes. Little did he know, the drawing would eventually play matchmaker and bring him to his future wife.

Nora created Luna's drawing in 2019 and posted it to her account as she usually does. That was where it caught the attention of Ferguson, who also had a cat named Luna. Nora's drawing eventually brought her to Schroeder's account. "I saw a pic on his account of him holding his Luna. Cute boy with cat—must follow, of course!" she told NPR. Upon receiving the notification that someone new had started following him, Schroeder took the obvious next step of taking a look at Ferguson's profile and saw her cats.

"So I then messaged her on Twitter, saying, 'Hey, your cats are cute,'" he recalled. "We then just started talking about our cats, getting to know each other, and eventually we started FaceTiming every day and slowly fell in love with each other." For months, the couple only saw each other through FaceTime as Schroeder lived in Oregon at the time while Ferguson was in Liverpool, England. The couple finally met in person in January 2020 when Schroeder flew across the ocean to the love of his life. Unfortunately, he had to return a few weeks later and the pair made plans for Ferguson to fly to Oregon in May 2020. Then, the pandemic hit.

The coronavirus pandemic and its travel restrictions put their plans on hold for more than a year. The two finally reunited in August 2021. "We had known from the start that we both loved each other and wanted to make this work," Schroeder said. And make it work they did. Despite all odds, the couple got engaged last New Year's Eve and tied the knot a few weeks ago on July 24. "Obviously, I had no clue that I was about to find my wife through Twitter, but things have a funny way of turning out," said Schroeder.

Ferguson agreed, adding: "I just thought I'd get to see posts of his cat on my timeline. I got a lot more than that, and I'm very glad I did." The couple now lives together in Liverpool with two cats, Leighton, "an 11-year-old angel of a girl," and Phil, a stray who has taken a liking to their house and the food and naps that come with it, Schroeder shared. As for the two Lunas who brought them together, Schroeder's has grown to be much bigger than she was in the illustration and now lives with his parents in Oregon. Sadly, Ferguson's Luna passed away due to an illness.

The couple already has plans to get a third cat and have even picked out a name for the feline: Cheddar. "They will be big and orange and beautiful, we hope," Schroeder said. Meanwhile, Nora is incredibly happy that she got to play a part in uniting the couple serendipitously. "It's nice what we can do with the internet these days," she said. "I would've never imagined that a cat drawing would result in a beautiful story."