When Sage Horn and Jakob Mattern first met, he wasn’t really a cat person. Horn, on the other hand, has always been completely head over heels for her kitties, and pretty soon, Mattern was too.

“[He] knows that I LOVE my cats so dearly, they’ve been such a huge and special part of my life,” Horn told The Dodo. “We adopted [Piper] a little after one year of moving into our first and only home together.”

Recently, Horn arrived home and expected to find both of her cats greeting her at the door as they always do, but instead, only Phoneix was there. Concerned, she quickly went looking for Piper.

“I go upstairs (this was on Valentine’s Day), greeted my boyfriend with flowers and chocolates, and I said, ‘Where’s Piper?’” Horn said. “And my boyfriend, Jakob, said, ‘I must have accidentally shut her in our room. I’ll go get her.’”

The couple headed to their bedroom and found Piper waiting at the door for them — and Horn immediately noticed her collar was different. Before Horn could check it out, though, Piper dashed to the kitchen searching for dinner. As soon as Horn caught up with her, she finally got a glimpse at the new collar and couldn’t believe her eyes.

“I noticed it said, ‘Will you marry me,’ and I turned around, and my boyfriend was down on his knee smiling with the ring in the box and said, ‘Babes, I want to spend the rest of my life with you and the kitties,’” Horn said.

Horn was completely shocked and caught off guard, but as soon as she got her bearings, she of course said yes! The proposal was absolutely perfect, especially since Piper got to play such a huge role.

Now, Horn gets to spend the rest of her life with Mattern knowing that their cats will always be just as important to him as they are to her.