David and I had gone out on a date and when we came home, the kids were all excited about the kitty they had found and fed, and Kayla had named Coconut. Oh no! We had one cat at the time-Tiger. He was a sweet brown tabby. We had recently lost our beautiful gray kitty, Toulouse, and I wasn't ready to give my heart to another animal. I felt bad for this little kitten, but figured it belonged to someone because I never saw it. One evening, I think she got hungry enough to come out of hiding again. Well, I couldn't resist! But, she was feral and wouldn't let us get close. For almost a month, I would lay out a handful of food and back up with a trail leading toward me and the house. Finally, she got close enough for me to grab! I ran inside and set her in the laundry room. We didn't see her for a month! We knew she was okay because she was eating and using the litter box. After that month, she started creeping up the stairs carrying this little red stuffed animal in her mouth and crying. She would scurry back down and hide if she saw anyone around. A short time later, she started to follow me around the house during the day when the kids were at school. I think having Tiger around helped her acclimate. It took quite a while before she would get near the boys, but finally, they won her over. Not long after we had adopted her (and thankfully had her spayed), David and I had gone away for a weekend. Coconut was let outside. When we came home and realized she was gone, I was heartbroken. I figured we would never see her again, that the coyotes would get her. We left food out, hoping she would come home, but I don't know if she ate it or if the possums got it. One night, we came home and heard meowing...it sounded like Coconut! I called her and could tell she was close, but she was hiding again. It took all of us roaming through bushes to finally find her cowering. We were so excited! She was alive and healthy! However, somehow in her outdoor adventure, she lost the use of her left eye. We took her to the vet, but there was nothing they could do. She is our one-eyed-princess. To see her now, she is nothing like that cowering, feral kitty we adopted. She has such a sweet temperament. She purrs loudly when she's happy and can't resist a blanket covered lap!
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