Chicken’s Corner: Cost of Living

Two horrifying things have happened recently. The first: I discovered Chicken has worms. It was this little tiny white thing that looked suspicious and displeasing to the eye and upon closer inspection and the internet, the more terrifyingly displeasing news that it was likely a worm. Jon took Chicken to the vet, along with the worm, sealed up in a little plastic bag.

Confirmed by the vet as indeed a worm, I received that dubious pleasure of being right. Apparently he’s probably picked it up from one of the mice he’s caught. Yuck! I thought to myself. Gross.

Until, the second horrifying event: Jon returned home with a mostly dewormed cat and a dental estimate to remove one of Chicken’s teeth, which broke off a year and a half ago. I was aghast. Aghast is maybe not the right word. It was over $2000. To remove a single tooth from my cat. A tooth that’s already partially removed! They clipped his nails for free while doing the deworming, so I suppose they’re not entirely heartless.

In any case, Chicken continues to saunter around, another triumph in his life’s mission of extracting all possible joy from the human side of cat ownership, lounging and stretching and sharpening his recently trimmed claws on our carpet. He smirks at his humans, saddled with the burdens of his care, the Herculean task of loving a cat.