Stevie gets some snuggles from Drew
Becky Adamietz-Deo | Special Contributor
Public Relations Manager, SPCA of Texas
Stephy and Drew met on Tinder in 2019 while studying at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, a school well-known for its conservative values. It wasn’t an easy environment for the lesbian couple (who recently celebrated their second wedding anniversary).
As animal lovers, each one brought pets into the relationship. Stephy had a Chinese water dragon, Spyro, and Drew’s menagerie comprised two Chinchillas, two turtles and a Bearded Dragon. They adopted their first pet together, a cat named Freddie Mercury, joined the family just a couple of months into the relationship. “We are animal people for sure! We had a dog at one point, so we’ve had a zoo. It adds a lot to our life,” Drew said.
Drew has been an elementary school teacher for the past six years. Stephy, who is working to receive her Certified Public Account (CPA) license, works in the nonprofit section of a national accounting firm.
Their friend AJ works at the SPCA of Texas and would send pictures of shelter kittens to Stephy, encouraging her to adopt.
“At one point, AJ was fostering two adorable kittens,” Stephy smiles. “Eventually they sent us a message indicating they were going to keep the kittens, as they didn’t want to split up the siblings.
“We had been considering adopting another cat, and when AJ shared this cute little Torti, Drew and I thought we might have to have a Stevie Nicks to go with our Freddie. And having the sister of AJ’s cat Mikey was the cherry on top!”
Drew had been the disciplinarian for Freddie, while Stephy hadn’t raised a cat before. So when Drew let Stephy know she would be in charge of Stevie’s lessons and discipline, she dug right in to learn everything she could. She watched a lot of videos by cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy about how to introduce the cats, and Drew says, “We followed all the suggestions — separate rooms, then introductions through the door and, finally, out in shared space. Stevie followed Freddie around for a while, but now they wrestle and play together. Stevie is like that annoying little sister who picks and picks at the older one.”
When it comes to disciplining Stevie, Stephy said, “When she does something she shouldn’t, I tell her no. She doesn’t listen so I pick her up, cradle her in my hands and gently whisper, ‘You can’t do that!’ Then I remove Stevie from the room and close the door.
“When I can’t stand the meowing and scratching on the door anymore, I let her back into the room. Then Stevie goes right back to her bad behavior!”
Although Stevie could be a little more gentle with the other household pets, the group is getting along very well. Drew and Stephy love spoiling every one of them and delight in bringing new toys home. “It makes us so happy,” Stephy said of bringing new toys home for their pets. “It’s like when a parent brings an exciting new toy home to their child — they can’t wait for the child to see it.”
“As a queer couple, we know this is our family,” the two women said, acknowledging that while they’ve talked about having children, they don’t think that’s real for them. Instead, with their menagerie of pets, “we still have that sense of family.”
“We have quite a lot of love for these pets,” noted Stephy. “They have no judgment, and we get a lot more love back from them than we could ever give. It’s lovely and special to have these precious things that we care for, that care for us so much. They don’t understand hatred or homophobia. All they know is that they have two moms.”
For Stephy, her own story underlines the vital roles pets can play in the lives of LGBTQ+ people. “I struggled for a while with my sexuality — not just coming to terms with it but eventually coming to terms with having to tell everybody one day,” she recalled. “It was a big thing for me to realize I know who I am, and I know who I’m going to be, and that it will be really hard to have to admit to all these people I care about — especially when it came to knowing that some people, for example my father, who isn’t very accepting even today, wouldn’t understand or accept me.
“One thing I loved in college that really helped me keep going was my Chinese water dragon, Spyro,” she continued as her wife reached out to hold her hand. “I knew that even if I wasn’t taking care of myself I had to continue to take care of him. Sometimes when I didn’t want to keep going, I would get up and get him out of his tank and hang out with him.”
Sometimes, Stephy said, “it seemed like Spyro was the only friend I had in college. I think sometimes pets can be the only thing that keeps you getting out of bed — that keeps you alive.”
Sadly, Spyro passed away last December 2025. For Stephy, no pet will ever take his place.
Stevie, meanwhile, is busy making her own place in the family. She loves to snuggle and spreads her love pretty evenly between Stephy and Drew. “When she was a baby, we would love and hug on her as she drifted off to sleep,” Drew explained. “Now she does the same for us — crawling under the blanket and laying on our chests until we doze off, then away she goes!”
Stephy and Drew happily will adopt another pet when the time is right. “We had to work our way up to adopting Stevie, and now that she’s settling in, we are still trying to get Freddie to forgive us,” Stephy laughed. “So, we will probably wait a while before adding a new pet to the family.”
For Drew and Stephy, each pet adds something unique to the family they have built together.
From Freddie’s steady presence to Stevie’s mischievous antics and the cherished memories of Spyro, each animal has brought joy, comfort, laughter and unconditional love.
Through life’s celebrations and challenges, their pets have been loyal companions, constant sources of support and reminders that family comes in many forms. As they look ahead to future adventures — and perhaps another adoption someday — the women know one thing for certain: The love they share with their animals continues to make their lives richer, happier and more complete.