Is my cat making me crazy?

In the March 2012 Atlantic Magazine, Kathleen McAuliffe explores the notion that Toxoplasma gondii, a microbe found in cat feces, is a mind-controlling parasite that may lead to anxiety, schizophrenia, and car accidents:

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy By KATHLEEN MCAULIFFE

Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? (continue reading…)

Concerned that my beloved Chairman Meow is making me crazy, I wrote a song to soothe my troubled thoughts:

A Parasite Built for Two
Sung to the tune of Daisy Bell (a.k.a Bicycle Built for Two) by Harry Dacre

There is a kitty within my house. Chairman! Chairman!
Sometimes he gives me a half-dead mouse. A present from Chairman Meow!
Whether he’s given me parasites, I cannot tell right now,
But I am willing to share my life with beautiful Chairman Meow!

Chairman, Chairman, give me your answer do.
Am I half crazy all because of you?
It won’t be a good diagnosis if I have toxoplasmosis,
But you’re so sweet, I’ll gladly sweep your cat hair and scoop your poo.



One Response to “Is my cat making me crazy?”

  1. Wally writes:

    hilarious. I was googling, looking for the word “toxoplasmosis” and you were the second entry. We are bound together by electrons, you and I.

Leave a Reply