How My 6 Dogs Are Hosing Me And Why I Don’t Care
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by Michael John Scott
I have 6 dogs and I can guarantee they get the best of care. They enjoy the highest quality food money can buy, and treats, lots and lots of treats. When it comes to health care there’s no free clinics for my spoiled pack. Only the best veterinary care money can buy, even if I don’t like mac and cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Let’s face it, most of what I do is geared to the comfort of my canines, including the size of the house, and more importantly, the size of the of the house I buy. Then, of course, there’s the car. You pretty much have to have an SUV, because your dogs like to go for rides. Lots of rides. You really can’t fit them into a Mustang GT, which you really want, so you settle for a Toyota Rav4 because it has a lot of room for your four-legged family.
I rarely think of cost, except maybe when I got the vet bill after two of my big male German shepherds decided to fight it out as opposed to just growling it out. Then there was the time my beautiful chocolate lab was diagnosed with cancer and had to have an eye removed. Now these were some big bills, but what can you do? They are, after all, family, and to me just as important as kids, and almost as noisy.
So when I read the latest report by CNBC, and, while struck by the final numbers, I wasn’t about to take my critter family to the local shelter for adoption.
According to a survey of pet owners by Britain’s People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, 12% of apparently very naive respondents thought the lifetime cost of their pet would be $644, while a majority put the cap at $6,445. The real numbers for your beloved pooch? Anywhere between $27,074 and $42,545, depending on the breed. That includes buying your dog, food, toys, grooming, and basic but not catastrophic vet care.
Fine, so you’ll get a cat instead, right? Things only get slightly better: Factoring in the addition of kitty litter, you’re talking $21,917 to $30,942. Want to downsize to a rabbit? That’ll be $12,893, thank you very much.
I thought of getting pet insurance, and as it happens, that’s just going to cost more, because, depending on the company, the restrictions to what will be paid by pet insurers is akin to Donald Trump’s latest health care proposal, meaning not much. At around $25 a month, CNBC notes that that can mean thousands more over the course of an animal’s life.
The happy ending to this story isn’t financial of course, as 93% of us say our critters make us happier albeit much poorer than we think.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Hear, hear!
I’m rethinking health insurance, though. A little more than a year ago my daughter’s ineffably endearing pound mutt was diagnosed with lymphoma, and we pulled out all the stops. One month & ~ $10K later she had to be euthanized. We could afford it and it never would have occurred to us not to try to do everything in our power to cure her, but I must say I do have some misgivings about how perhaps that money could have been used to help other animals (including people).
Sigh.
And the other side of this quandary concerns the pet owners who are pretty much forced to euthanize their animals when they (the owners) can’t begin to afford the wonders of modern veterinary medicine. Perhaps a better insurance buy-in on the part of pet owners would eventually serve to even out the playing field a little bit.
But that way pet insurance companies would no doubt become as odious as human insurance companies.
What do we want? Single payer!
Well, I will join the crowd. I have only the one dog but he has contended with three inside cats (actually 4 inside cats but Garfield was an older feral cat that came in from the cold and was more like and old dog than a cat. I called him a Dat). Food is, of course, especially ordered for them and I don’t even want to want to think about the vet bills. Rascal has had to have a toe amputated due to cancer and has a good bit of arthritis in his shoulders so he gets a RX pain med daily but we keep plodding along. Right now the senior of the group is Trouble Shirley’s 19 year old cat that travels with her, then Rascal and Runt both at 13 1/2. One of our group got out and has been missing for over a month now. Quirt is/ was a the blackest cat I have ever seen but had crossed eyes. I can only hope that someone else has taken him in. But as has already been pointed out, they are family.
Roscoe is still cheaper than psychotherapy. How can you put a price on a live-in psychotherapist?
And that too Glenn. When I am feeling bad I can hug a warm fuzzy body. Better than a couch any day!
I do not EVER look at the amount of money I have spend on my furry family. I figure I quit several unhealthy habits so I have more money. Yeah, it would be nice to save a little but I had four kids and learned long ago that is never going to happen so I will take care of all the creatures who come my way and die poor and happy. Can’t ask for better than that.
My cat is likely on the higher side of the range because our vet makes house calls, only. But we had a relationship with her for, let’s see, 25 years? I remember my first visit with her was right after a huge Palatine massacre at the church’s fried chicken… My vet knows Myya quite well, and Myya, who hates her (because she’s a vet – and she pokes her and stabs her with needles) is too old to try to get used to TRAVELING to see a new vet. No, I agree, I wouldn’t change it if I could!
Lovely little tale. Big cat fan here.
MadMike, dogs are better people than most people. You know that too.
I do that my friend. I do know that.