M.I.C.: Crazy for Coconut

In December of 2008 I was craving something. Perhaps it was the fact that my own cat (that had been stationed in Germany with my parents) had passed away. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I always had animals around when I was younger. Perhaps it was simply because I wanted one.

By the way, it you didn't figure it out, I'm referring to a cat.

What I didn't think of, is that there is definitely a difference between a cat and a kitten.

One day after exams had ended and we truly had nothing to do (Clark was off work but we still had to wait out leaving for our vacation because he had to work Christmas day), we started driving around. We started looking at other apartments because we were rather bored with living on campus. We went out for Chinese food. We went to the pound. We adopted a kitten.

You know, the usual stuff.

The fact that our apartment didn't allow pets and that we were leaving for Germany in a matter of days didn't seem to phase us.

Rather, it didn't seem to phase me. And Clark wanted to please me. (I'm so blessed.)

When we went to the pound there was a shy little thing hiding in the back of the cage. Her name was Beth. I picked her out since she was the only one in the bunch that wasn't black and white.

Clark said no. If we were going to get a cat, the least the cat could do was be male. (Clark "doesn't like cats"... like all men "don't like cats". OK, some legitimately don't... but... ya know.)

So, there was one male kitten in the bunch. When I picked him up, he clawed his way up to my shoulder and snuggled under my chin.

He won.

When we found out his name was Coconut, Clark decided it was fine. I personally, actually, wanted to name him Figaro (after the cat in Pinocchio)... but now I can't imagine Coconut being Figaro at all.

We brought him back to the apartment and followed him around like two parents watching their baby first learn to crawl or walk. Seriously. When Coconut found something new to play with, we were so excited for him. When he curled up and went to sleep somewhere, we were "oooooh"-ing and "ahhhhh"-ing at how adorable he was. When he curled up and decided to sleep on Clark's shoulder... Clark declared, "he was ok."

The fact that I have an entire Facebook photo album dedicated to Coconut still astounds me. When that happened, Clark (even then) said, "What are you going to do when we have children?"

Heh. Heh. Heh.

I'd say it's "worse" with Michael than it was with Coconut.

Coconut kept me company, busy, and entertained while Clark was working and I was just sitting around the house. When I put up our Christmas decorations, Coconut successfully climbed up our (fake) Christmas tree and just about tipped it over. He got into the trash can, the sink, the bathtub... everything.

And I loved him all the more for it.

Little did we know that Coconut was going to cause us a lot more trouble in the year(s) to come.