Thursday morning ... and beyond: In filling out applications for apartment living, the PET question is huge. Many apartments allow for pets nowadays with a hefty downpayment ($300+) and sometimes an extra rental fee for each pet (i.e. $35/month).
Emma has a cat. She has had BELLE for about 10 years now, beginning down in El Paso, TX while on the Army base. Belle was evidently rejected by another family when she was about 2 years old; so Emma's family "adopted" her. However, Emma has mainly been her caregiver--especially in the last five or more years. Belle is a rather finicky, smallish (7.5 pounds) little cat, who does NOT like dirt or "others" in her litter box. The last few years that Emma lived with her mom, Belle resided mainly in Emma's bedroom (the cleanest room in the house).
One of the apartments that we have been really wanting to get isn't far away--in fact, it is over by the ballpark, in very familiar territory to Emma. Their application was grueling to get through with many "required fields" that had to be filled out or you could not submit the application.
So the first obstacle we ran into was immunizations and shots for Belle. We avoided it for awhile, but it seemed there was no way past these required fields on the application. Yesterday, we loaded Belle up in her classy cat carrier (Emma purchased it at Meijer awhile ago actually) and her fancy leash and headed over to Red Barn Vet Clinic off of Division and 64th Street. It is a walk-in clinic ... and good thing, because we called another vetrinary clinic and were told appointments for shots and exams were 9 weeks out. We were referred to this walk-in clinic, which worked out really well for us.
We arrived at the clinic at 8:30 am (the time it opens) and were greeted by a VERY long outside line already. It took about 45 minutes before our place in line was actually up to the front door. Once we got inside, we waited another hour and 15 before we were seen and Belle was treated. Having said that, though, this clinic was very impressive. Kind--SUPER kind--people worked there at check-in and as aides; and the vet herself was wonderful. We got Belle ALL taken care of--or so we thought.
Incidentally, Belle handled herself really well throughout her entire ordeal--from being in her carrier, to riding in the car, to waiting in the waiting area with other animals surrounding her, and even during her combined rabies and vaccination injection. Good job, Belle-Belle!
We dropped Belle back off to Jesse, came home here with high hopes to complete this apartment application. THEN I noticed ANOTHER required field. They needed the cat LICENSE number ... the what? Cats have licenses? It was too late in the day yesterday to do anything about this ...
SO THIS MORNING (Friday) we drove back to Red Barn with our papers from yesterday to inquire about getting a license for Belle. I had called ahead, but the phone just rang and rang without being answered. The girl at the desk said she would check about the license thing, left for a brief moment and came back to tell us that Red Barn does DOG licenses, but NOT cats. We would have to go to "Kent County" for that. Kent County? Kent County WHAT?
We went back out to my car and Emma called the Kent County Animal Shelter where we received the information that Kent County DOES NOT REQUIRE any cat licenses whatsoever. Yes! But what about that required field on the application? Well--we just put in Emma's driver's license number, and then took about 20 minutes trying to figure out and then finally succeeding at HOW to pay our $50 application fee and $150 holding fee. The application is now in the hands of the people who need it. We began this process back on Monday. We have found out in the meantime that another person has filled out an application that is being processed for the only available unit. The manager encouraged us to send in our application anyway and to wait.
We are waiting, and we are praying. We are tired. We are exhausted. We are discouraged. Our hearts are sad ... but we haven't given up--we can't!
I was following up on a suggestion that Pastor Jim gave us last Sunday: to look up a paper he wrote on Creation and read through it (we've just begun a study in Genesis on Sunday mornings). I was impacted, though, with a Scripture reference from Hebrews 11.3: "By FAITH we UNDERSTAND that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." And also verse 6: "... without FAITH it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Pastor talked about the exercise of FAITH giving us understanding of incomprehensible things ... and I found comfort in these verses.
I am going to choose FAITH that God will continue to provide what Emma needs in His way and in His time. Please God.
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| This is Belle! |
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