Remember how in Crazy for Coconut I mentioned we were in for a roller coaster with our cat?

Well, this was the first incident.

Our second Christmas together we spent at home. But just the day after, we hit the road for Fayetteville, and then Germany. A sorority sister of mine was going to be in town (at school) after Christmas, so she said she'd take care of Coconut for us.

Never having a kitten before, I didn't see a dilemma. My cats had never been high maintenance when it came to care when we were gone. I told her just to check in on him every day. Clean the littler box. Feed him. You know, the basics. She mentioned she would be gone for a day or two around New Year's, and I really didn't think Coconut would mind.

Never mind that he was only about 2.5 months old. Never mind that our apartment complex didn't allow pets. Never mind that I had been there since we got him following him around and loving on him. It would be fine.

Can you see where this is going?

While we were in Germany it was easy to go a few days without getting on the computer. Especially when we were traveling. Our second trip to Germany we went to Rhotenburg; one of the prettiest places I've been to date.

When we got back to my parents place and I logged in to my Facebook... it was disaster.

There were several messages from our sitter. She had locked the key to our apartment inside the apartment and had no idea what to do. On the first day she contacted us. And the second. Finally on the third she went back and had to get help. Coconut was taken to the shelter.

I freaked out and burst into tears.

Not only had we had our kitty for less than a month, but in that time frame he had been almost starved to death and taken away to a strange place.

Clark was calm. First we called the girl and she explained how difficult taking care of him had been. Never mind that she locked the key in the apartment, but before that every time she left he would cry. She was certain the entire complex could hear him (I have no doubt of that).

Poor dear.

Next Clark called the shelter. They said they'd keep him there for the duration of our trip for a $25 fee. That doesn't sound bad, but at the time we budgeted things to the very last penny. I had to log on our bank account online and figure out just how we were going to pay that $25, especially since Clark had just left Walgreens before we flew out of the country.

When returning home, I was anxious about our kitty. What I wasn't thrilled about was having to meet with our RA (or whatever he was called) about the incident. We were forced to sign a paper saying we had a "mature discussion" about why we shouldn't have pets in the apartment, and then we told him we were wanted to move out of the apartments. It was possible to simply withdraw at that time, which was nice. Living in campus apartments meant no technical lease. So... we then had thirty days to find a new place to live.

Great.

It was our fault. Had we waited (like responsible adults) to get a pet once we had an apartment that allowed pets, we wouldn't have been crunched into a deadline. However, we jumped the gun (as was and is a trend with us) and got Coconut. So, we had to pay the consequences.

We were faced with another situation that reinforced the fact that God truly was looking out for us.