As Valentine's Day approached, Clark wanted to find a way to surprise me. He wanted it to be special, and he kept hinting at a dog. Like that's what we needed.

We had just moved into our new place (see Move #3). It was said to be "pet friendly", but our lease technically said we were only allowed "one small cat", aka Coconut. I told Clark if he was thinking of anything (which he shouldn't have been because we couldn't afford it), he had to check with our landlord first.

Valentine's Day came. One of my sorority sisters and I went shopping for her boyfriend and Clark. I bought him a box of Reeses chocolates and a stuffed dog with a "be mine" or "love you" heart in his mouth... something to that affect. Clark says, "What a coincidence, I found you a puppy, too!"

We were headed to Asheville. Only after I had a job interview, though. I got the job (working at Calvin Klein), so it seemed to justify the fact that we were about to possibly add to our family.

We went to just look. Clark had found this puppy named "Twist" at the Asheville PetCo... Pet Smart... one of the two... who was a husky mix. We just wanted to see her, and explore the options of being parents to another pet.

I fell in love. This other family started holding her and I just couldn't imagine them taking her home. The parents were waivering. Thinking that maybe they could bring a puppy home. They said they'd go home and talk about it. They returned "Twist" to the pen.

I swooped in and picked up this positively adorable puppy and knew, instantly, that she was meant to be mine.

This is where the, "WARNING, WARNING," siren should have been going off, right? Letting me know that I was being impulsive. That I was rushing into a decision.

Even Clark was questioning it. But I wanted her.

So, we talked to the girl who had been her "foster mom". We talked to the women who were in charge. We wrote a check. We filled out the paper work.

She was ours. We only had to wait a week (or two, I can't quite remember the length of time it truly was) and we could bring her home.

As we finished our day out and about, I started to ponder... and the week (or two) passed, and I pondered some more....

By the time Clark went to get "Twist", I realized that it probably wasn't the best decision. After all, he was working, I was in school, we had only had Coconut for a couple of months and that had gotten us into trouble. Would "Twist" bring about the same things?

But when she was in the car when Clark came to get me from class (he had to go pick her up), and we decided to name her Luna (due to her right eye having a crescent of blue in it) instead of "Twist", I decided we'd see it through.

This is the period that we called our "babysitting" phase. We weren't really sure if we were going to keep Luna or not, so we were constantly inquiring if people mentioned they wanted a dog. While we were training her, raising her, and falling in love with her-- we tried to not really call her "ours".

Did I mention that our parents didn't know we had her this early? (Sorry, mom and dad.) We were so afraid of being accused of being irresponsible (which we were) and being told that we should get rid of her (which we knew), that we just kept it to ourselves that we had her.

Luna, just like Coconut, would lead to some troubles of her own.

In Kitty Disaster #1 you learned that we had to give our notice about moving off of campus. Before school started up again, we were determined to find another apartment. Not exactly an easy task in the middle of a semester, especially when you want to find a pet-friendly place.

For whatever reason, our town didn't seem to be pet-friendly... at least not to renters. While we found a few apartments that seemed reasonable and were close to campus, none of them wanted a pet-- not even a tiny feline.

Finally we found a place.

It wasn't small. And it definitely was over our price range. When I hashed out the budget as we started looking, I wrote down the most we could afford for a place-- at most. This place was $100 over that... but it was so perfect. And it was the only place that we could find.

Wouldn't you know, we rushed into it.

Another woman was showing up as we were finishing our "tour". I was nodding my head yes, Clark was giving me "the look", and I was ignoring him. There have been very few times I have received "the look". You know, the one your spouse gives you when he/she knows something's a bad idea, or you can't afford what you're about to buy, or you're doing something that's annoying them... that look. It tends to always be one in the same. Rarely have I ever received that look.

But I did that day. Clark can have the "I told you so" moment there.

Now, here's the catch.

The landlord didn't exactly want pets. What had happened was the guys that had lived there previously (a two bedroom house that had been a home to three or four male college students) had all graduated. Something had happened with their previous sublet and it had all gotten messed up. So, the landlord was allowing them to advertise the place as pet friendly because he felt bad for them because they were all paying rent on two properties at that point.

The landlord was fine with Coconut. Small, indoor cat. That wasn't a problem.

We gathered who we could to help us move, and started the process almost immediately. While the place was up a gravel road that had an odd turn, it wasn't nearly as bad as Homespun Hills (Our First Apartment). Not to mention, this place truly was a house. While it had a basement apartment, you couldn't get to it through our part of the house. Our downstairs neighbor basically kept to himself. I think we only saw him a few times, one of which was to figure out how to share cable/internet (yeah... bad us).

We had two bedrooms, a real kitchen (finally), a huge wrap-around porch, a living room, a laundry closet... it was perfect.

(We also got to paint the living room, which positively THRILLED me.)





We thought everything was going back to normal. We had a new place to live. Our kitty was settled in with us (we didn't have to get rid of him). I was starting class again. I still had my campus job. We had some money in savings to help us out. All that was needed was a job for Clark.

This is another time that it was completely clear God was in control. We were afraid we wouldn't find a house: done. We were afraid we weren't going to be able to afford food: done. We were afraid Clark wouldn't find a job: done. Things were lining up. But, just because God is providing doesn't mean there isn't a lesson in there somewhere. That's the part we always seemed to ignore.

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.

Christmas 2008 was about as exciting as Thanksgiving 2008... aka it was depressing.

Just a few days before Christmas Clark left Walgreens. There had been some mix-ups about his scheduling over the holidays. While we knew he had to work Christmas, he had requested off before and after to visit family. Walgreens wasn't so obliging, so Clark just left.

I wasn't very happy with him. He had been there for almost a year. If he had stuck it out just another month we would have qualified for so much more. But Clark didn't want it. So, I supported him.

As Christmas was only a couple days away, I got super upset. I realized we could have been in Germany spending Christmas with my parents and little sister, rather than at home opening presents and doing dinner by our lonesomes. While we looked into changing our tickets, we clearly couldn't afford it.

So we didn't tell our families. We didn't want my parents to get upset that we were missing Christmas, and we didn't want pressure from Clark's family to drive to Fayetteville to do Christmas with them. Instead we decided to do Christmas by ourselves.

Well, us and Coconut, of course.




The food turned out well (if I do say so myself), although I can't honestly remember what I made. We didn't do much. We hung out, we got ready, we opened presents, we cuddled on the couch. We just enjoyed being with each other, rather than putting pressure on the fact that it was our first (and thus far only) Christmas by ourselves.

There was a point in the day I remember getting upset. After all, this was the first Christmas either of us had spent without being around any "extended" family. We were still young and figuring out what it mean to be a family of our very own. It was Clark who reminded me that we came first, the rest of the family came second. Usually it was me reminding him, and I was so thankful that he stepped up to the plate on Christmas.

I like to think that we truly made the holiday about the reason for the season, rather than the "stuff". We tried to focus on remembering that the day wasn't about presents or food, but about the birth of Jesus Christ.

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.