Surprise!

Shortly after my husband and I were married I found a job working at a psychiatric office. I worked five days a week, and had an hour long round trip commute. On Mondays I worked ten hours, which were always long days considering where I worked and the type of people that came through the door.  

One Sunday evening after church we were relaxing in our apartment, and we were looking on Craigslist at different things. Just for kicks we started looking at the animals. We all love looking at adorable animal pictures, don't we? We came across some disgusting snakes, some puppies and an adorable orange cat. When we got to the picture of the cat I looked at my husband and said, “aww, it’s so cute.”

Well, Monday rolled around and off to work I went. When my day ended, I called my husband and let him know I was on my way home. This particular Monday he sounded a little short, and was quick to get off the phone. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, so the whole way home I was wondering what was going on. As I walked in the door of our apartment, Matt was standing there smiling and all of his brothers were sitting very quietly on my couches. They were all waiting for a reaction. A reaction to what, you ask? It was all very weird. The blinds were all shut, the lights were all off except the kitchen, and there was a smell, a nasty smell. That could have been the boys; the jury is still out on that one. It took me a few minutes to figure out what they were all up to. A few seconds later I saw a little orange fur ball come out from around the couch. My husband said, “SURPRISE!”. That it was. I was not happy. I went to my room, closed the door and cried!

Did I mention I am allergic to cats?

I didn’t like my job, it was a long, bad day, and I was definitely surprised to come home to a room full of boys and this new cat. Matt came to our room to check on me. I told him I appreciated the gesture, but the cat had to go. Then I proceeded to tell him just because I said it was cute didn’t mean I wanted it. He said, “it was FREE”. 

That also doesn’t make it better. There was probably a reason it was free. Perhaps his SMELL? I said, “Please, get rid of him.” Well at that point it was too late in the evening to give him back. I gave the cat some water and put him in our guest bathroom … all night. It might have been a little cruel, but come on! What would you have done? 

The next day Matt took the cat to his parents' house to stay the night. My mother-in-law wasn’t too happy, but my husband assured her it was ok because they already had two cats and it would be fine. It was just for one night. Wrong--it was there for two nights. By Wednesday the little orange fur ball was back to it's owner and I was still working on getting the smell out of our apartment.

So the moral of the story is, just because a woman says something is cute doesn’t mean she always wants it. Unless it’s a purse or a pair of shoes. Then, yes, you do indeed have permission to surprise us!

Have you ever been surprised with something you didn’t want?