Cooper and Keeley's story begins as all great love stories do; during a global pandemic, on a dating app. They connected instantly over their love of animals, (their obsession with their dogs Quinn and Goose), good food, and their appreciation of each other's taste in music and films. Within a few months of dating Keeley was off to Ventura to continue progressing in her career in Speech Language Pathology. Cooper began his studies in psychology and enrolled in graduate school to become a therapist. Not knowing how it would all work out, they decided to keep dating. The next two and half years they lived two hours apart and every weekend they took turns driving to each other's place, splitting their time between Morro Bay and Ventura. With an opportunity to work in a new community and a desire to live in the woods, Cooper dragged Keeley to the historic gold rush town of Nevada City. In Rilo Kiley-esque lyrical fashion they "took a loan out, put it down on a house, in a place they had never lived," got some cats, and the rest is history.