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Experiencing the thrill of getting out on your own for the first time is an indescribable event. Freedom! I still recall moving into my first apartment like it was yesterday.

The year was 1989 and I was a year out of high school. My soon to be roommate and I were out apartment hunting and finally found what we thought was the perfect place. We were young and this factor made finding an apartment a bit diffcult, but we met with a landlord who was willing to give us a chance even though we had no reference to go on.

The apartment was on the bottom floor of a quaint A-frame house; there were four apartments total. Best of all, the rent was extremely reasonable. We immediately said "we'll take it"! We were ready too, for months we'd been going to flea markets and other sales and carefully collecting towels, kitchen utensils and other necessary wares in preparation for the big day. I even recall finding a pretty good deal on a potato peeler, colander and bath towels.

Yes, we were set and on our way! Moving day finally arrived and we began to move our stuff in the apartment. Some of our family and friends generously gave us some old furniture. We went out and bought an inexpensive sofa and a kitchen table set. We thought to ourselves how independence was so sweet as we lugged all of this stuff into our new digs.

We moved in the first of June and by the fall we began to realize why we'd gotten the apartment so cheap. One night we were up late watching TV and I thought I saw something running out of the corner of my eye; I shook my head and it was gone. A few nights later it happened again and this time I saw it, it was a huge rat!

Shaken and annoyed we went next door to talk to the landlord about this and his solution was to give us a cat. This was curious because the policy was "no pets", but their cat had recently had a litter and they were desperately trying to give away kittens. We cautiously adopted the cat and took our new family member home. The kitty did her job and chased the rodents away (turned out the rat had some tiny mouse friends too!), and we were happy again and we adored our new furry friend.

Before we knew it it was winter and the holidays had approached. We excitedly decorated our apartment with Christmas spirit and had plans to visit our families that week. Unfortunately those plans fell to the wayside. Our landlord had also planned a getaway that week and Christmas morning our heat went out. His son was our contact in case of emergency and we gave

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