We saw our friend Bob at the dump Saturday, he helped us with the garbage cans but was irritated because we didn’t bring Fate along. He keeps some biscuits for  her by the cash register. “Too hot,” I said, he understood.

We got to talking about the money people spent on their animals, and I told him we don’t spend money on chickens, but we did spend nearly $2000 to amputate Minnie’s rear leg. His eyebrows shot up over that when I told her she was a barn cat. Then he told me the story of woman who came to the dump and spent more than $15,000 on a sick Chinchilla. True story, he said. I felt better.