Fox Life

It showed up that Jimmy hadn't been joking about expecting a party once the fennec's case was over. He claimed that it was only right that they all met up at Kyro's place to drink and celebrate his new pet.

"You just want a reason to get drunk," Kyro couldn't help saying. "Does Marge keep you under such wraps that you need to escape to my place to drink?"

"Worse. She's expecting, so she's not drinking a drop and wants me to do the same." Jimmy looked over at him with eyes pleading for mercy. "I just want a can of beer once a week, is that too much to ask?"

Kyro rolled his eyes. "You think she'll skip out on a party? It's just three months, she'll come to my place even before your work hours are finished."

Jimmy's face fell, and his shoulders drooped. He looked down at his table, unseeing. "What do I do then?" he asked, raising his empty eyes to look at Kyro.

"It wasn't me who decided to marry at twenty-four. She's your problem," he said with a shrug. "And who else did you tell about the party that I'm supposedly holding?"

The man frowned, then took out his phone. "No one? Besides Gale, oh, and Ted. He said he'll come with his girlfriend, since I said he could bring someone."

"And you didn't consider bringing Marge?" Kyro asked, raising his eyebrow. This was a tidbit he could use later on. If he ever needed something, just the mention of this would be enough to have Jimmy scurrying to do it.

He smiled with satisfaction, and Jimmy instantly became weary. He didn't take long to figure out what Kyro was thinking.

"Don't you dare! If you tell her... I'll be sleeping on the sofa for a month!"

Kyro's smile widened. "Then you're buying the alcohol, which you won't be able to drink. Think Marge will appreciate it?"

"Fuck you, man."

"I'll see you Friday."

…

Kitten videos are awesome, but there's a limit to how many of them a person can see before going mad. Iris spent good three hours doing that, and she was close to the finish line. Couple minutes more, and she was sure she was going to see kittens in place of every moving object.

Afraid of this kind of curse, she closed the tab and thought what to do instead. Her sight moved through the room, and far in the bedroom, she saw her food bowl. It was mostly empty now but for a couple crickets she couldn't stomach anymore.

Quickly, she turned to the keyboard and typed in 'types of fox' to find herself. She had seen her kind before, but couldn't remember the name.

Soon, she saw a big-eared cousin of hers under the name 'Fennec, desert fox'. 'Desert? I could survive in a desert?' That sounded pretty cool, and she clicked to read more about it.

Apparently, it was really that bad. Ninety percent of their scavenging in the desert resulted in insects and small-boned animals. Because of that, their teeth were slightly different from those of other foxes.

The rest of their food consisted of roots and leaves, with some berries that were almost non-existent. They also sometimes pilfered bird nests and stole eggs.

In other words, her food wasn't going to get any better any time soon, nor was she going to grow that much larger. Female fennecs weighted a bit over one kilogram, which was seriously very little. Most cats weighed more!

'I'm going to be bullied for all eternity,' she thought with discontent. For her to find something smaller than her was going to be nigh impossible. Only some pocket dogs would fit, but nobody in this neighborhood kept them!

As she was about to close the tab, she saw a suggestion on the side. 'Once in a while, you can get your fennec a mouse. They really enjoy them since it fits with their natural diet, but be careful where you buy these tasty treats for you pet since many places selling them kill the pests with dangerous chemicals.'

For a moment, Iris just stared. Her mind was empty of thought, just an image of a dead mouse staying in her eyes. She could see its every fine hair and smell the stench of death wafting off it. And as if from far away, she could hear Kyro saying, "Try it, just bite in. You'll like it once you try."