As Officer J.N. Rowsey of North Carolina’s Durham Police Department headed to work earlier this week, she had no idea she’d wind up on a call that would change her life.

But by day’s end, there’d be two lives that were changed for the better.

While on routine patrol through a neighborhood, Rowsey and her partner spotted a tiny kitten who was all alone, scared and in distress. The officers decided to stop, dropping everything to lend the kitten a helping hand.

“[They] searched the neighborhood in an attempt to find the kitten’s owner or its mother,” the Durham Police Department wrote. “But [they] had no luck.”

It eventually became clear that the little stray kitten had no owner or a place to call her own. But it didn’t take long for that to change.

After a brief time in Officer Rowsey’s kind presence, the kitten chose her as her new mom. And Rowsey couldn’t help but accept it.

Rowsey now had the world’s cutest new sidekick.

What began as a routine stop to help an animal in distress ended with the start of a new friendship that will last a lifetime.

“The lucky kitten found a new home with one of the officers,” the police department wrote. “[She] quickly made [herself] comfortable and appears very happy to have found a new home with Officer Rowsey.”