Chips

“How did they know it was Murphy?” Zoey asked as she sped down a side street to avoid traffic.

Molly’s car is in the shop so I called Zoey and begged her to drive me to the vet clinic that claimed to have Murphy. She came as fast as she could.

“I don’t know! I just told them we’d be there! You have to hurry!”

“Faith, I’m going double the speed limit, it’s a wonder I haven’t been pulled over yet.”

I ran into the small vet clinic looking like a frantic mess followed by Molly (Zoey was parking).

“I’m Murphy’s-Murphy is my-”

“I’ll take you to see him.” A blonde nurse said and smiled gently.

I was led to the back and put in an exam room; Molly was quietly waiting next to me. A vet tech wheeled a giant plastic box into the room. It looked like a baby incubator. I put my hand over my mouth and my eyes filled with tears and Molly put her arm around me.

I looked at the nurse with confusion.

“That isn’t him. That’s not Murphy.”

“Are you sure? He’s been through a lot, he might just look different because of the burns.” The nurse said.

“Murphy is black and white.”I said looking at the very obviously brown tabby cat in the incubator.

Just then Dr. Jones walked in a shook my hand. She was a small, gray-haired woman with glasses.

“He’s going to be okay.” She said as Zoey entered the room quietly behind Molly and I.

The nurse whispered something to Dr. Jones.

“Really?” Dr. Jones asked, her eyebrows rose.

“Why did you think that was my cat?” I asked.

“That cat has a microchip in it that was traced to when you adopted him.” She said looking perplexed,“Yvonne, can you get the scanner, please?”

The nurse nodded and left the room only to return a few seconds later. She handed the object she was holding to Dr. Jones who then opened the incubator and scanned the cat’s back.

She looked at the screen and then scanned it again. She did this several more times, each time she wrinkled her forehead more and more.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” she said showing the scanner’s screen to the nurse.

“What’s the deal?” Molly said.

“This cat has two microchips in it. We’ll need to call the other owner connected to the other chip to see if they’ll claim it. But this cat also has Murphy’s chip in it, too. It has the chip registered to you and your previous address. I don’t know how this cat got a chip registered to you in it.”

“So if Murphy’s chip is in that cat…?” I said more to myself.

“I’m sorry for calling you all the way out here.” Dr. Jones said. She said some other things to Molly and Zoey before she left the room but I wasn’t listening.

I sat down in a chair and things were a blur. Zoey and Molly pulled into a diner and forced me to eat.

“Don’t worry, Faith, he could be out there somewhere.” Zoey said.

“If his chip is in that other cat, it means it’s not in him.” I said, “Which means that if he’s even alive and found, they won’t know that he has a home and an owner.”

Zoey and Molly got really quiet. None of us knew what to say.

“It would have just been easier if the firemen had been able to find his remains,” I said darkly, “It’s worse not knowing if he’s even alive, at least if they’d found his remains, I’d know and would be able to move on.”

“Have you considered adopting again? You know that I would be fine with that.” Molly said.

“I don’t want another cat! I want MY cat!” I said more loudly than was necessary.

“What if you just volunteered at some shelters,” Zoey said gently, “maybe being around more cats and dogs would help you move on.”

I shrugged her off and silently ate my food.

I’m so confused about why this whole ordeal happened. My apartment burned down because of arson and my cat is gone and breaking up with my ex-boyfriend made me emotionally unstable and a poor decision maker. Is this karma? Why can’t I just ever move on from things!? Why is there always something that happens to remind me of all of the bad stuff?