[-jimi-]

Someone asked my WHY I'm spending money on vet bills for an ordinary cat.

When you have cats, they become your friends. People don't have pet cats if they don't feel anything for them. That would lack purpose. IF you have pet cats, you love them and will want the best for them. If they suffer, you want to help them.

If you never felt love for an animal I guess it is hard to understand. Still, you should understand you don't take on animals if you plan to act irresponsible to them. That doesn't even involve emotion to understand.

It's my money. I'm not taking someone else's money. So what's the big deal? To show me how hardened your heart is?

Pff...

[gayleggg]

You are totally right. People who don't understand obviously don't have pets or understand the emotional bonds we form with our pets. I don't have cats, but I do have two little dogs that I care about. I want the healthy and feeling good. They go to the vet when they need to. You are not alone in your feelings for your pets.

It sounds like you have it figured out.

[-jimi-]

LOL I know. It just surprises me how others think. Anyway the cat was well behaved at the vet.

I think they usually are lol. I took a cat that was pretty rowdy in to get fixed and vaccinated. When I picked him up they said he'd been a sweetheart
How is your cat?

[-jimi-]

I will know later when his test results come back.

[Nammu]

I have never understood why people get pets if they won't take care of them. Income makes no difference, I knew someone who got a puppy...because it was the thing to do, an accessory. She had no clue she needed to get shots and licenses, truly clueless.

[connect.the.stars]

I agree. Not many people recognize how much care needs to be given to their pets.

The way I see this is, pets are like babies. If you don't think you can offer what it takes to raise a child (love, attention, health check-ups, etc.), then don't get a pet. Animals cannot voice or ask specifically for what they need. Just because some pets can learn to take better care of themselves, doesn't mean they can be neglected. That (to me) is akin to child abandonment.

Oh, and if you can find a breed of talking cats, then that is absolutely fascinating please do share.



Sorry, I'll get off my high horse now. :P

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

Pet insurance is perhaps a necessity - I was stung £500 for an x-ray on a cat, and then, when they found nothing, they suggested £2500 for MRI. Happily the cat recovered without further veterinary intervention.

[-jimi-]

My cats are insured but the deductible is quite high. The insurance is mostly important for if something really expensive happens. Here the deductible is high so the insurance itself can be cheap. Good reasoning I think. I get a little back for the bloodwork but not a lot.

[lizardlady]

connect.the.stars, I used to have a cat I swore was a little old Jewish man wearing a cat suit. He walked around muttering under his breath. He didn't speak English, but I could tell he was complaining about the state of affairs in the world.

My hubby and I had a cat we swore spoke English. We both heard him say "Hello" and a couple of other simple words.

Was it me, jimi? Am I the person in the OP? I vaguely remember saying something in chat about vet bills on basic cats.

Originally Posted by lizardlady

connect.the.stars, I used to have a cat I swore was a little old Jewish man wearing a cat suit. He walked around muttering under his breath. He didn't speak English, but I could tell he was complaining about the state of affairs in the world.

I would like to have a little old Jewish man cat ... as long as he was a mensch

[lizardlady]

Originally Posted by GreenMoss

I would like to have a little old Jewish man cat ... as long as he was a mensch

I had o look up the meaning of "mensch." He definitely was one!

[-jimi-]

Originally Posted by George H.

How is your cat?

Got the labs back. He is balanced on his med. No need to increase. But also I can't lower it, he needs it to not waste away (he has too fast metabolism). But came out he did get the side effect from it, kidney damage. He still has fairly good kidneys and he has no symptoms from them. But I know keeping him on this med will slowly kill his kidneys and there will be a point where he gets affected and then I must let him go.

I don't like the countdown. Sounded like I have about 2 years with cat. I hope I can just QUIT thinking about death, I think of it all the time with people and pets, and ENJOY what we have now.

Please tell me how to do that!

[Webgoji]

Over the years I've had to put down plenty of my furry and scaly kids. And yes, pets are just like having children. For me it's best to actually keep their death in mind. They don't live as long as us and we'll eventually have to let them go. As long as I kept that in mind, as much as I didn't want to think about it, it made it easier to let them go. It also made me calmer when we had to put one down so they had a more peaceful death. It's still hard, but something that has to be done.

And for what it's worth, still keep them in your heart. To this day I still write short stories about Liza Jane and Zoey and Gentle Ben ...

[lizardlady]

Originally Posted by -jimi-

I don't like the countdown. Sounded like I have about 2 years with cat. I hope I can just QUIT thinking about death, I think of it all the time with people and pets, and ENJOY what we have now.

Please tell me how to do that!

Jimi, I too have spent amounts of money others thought was insane on critters. I agree with you that it's love and responsibility.

As for your question above, Jimi, we never know when someone, human or critter, is going to die. I've learned to cherish the time I have with them because tomorrow might not come. How to do that? What works for me is to stop myself when I start worrying about losing them and remind myself to enjoy what's right in front of me. Do you know much about mindfulness? I remind myself to be mindful.

[Citrine]

Shame it has to be explained an justified for those that see having a companion animal as an accessory to their home or self or status or something they got to amuse the kids. I cringe when I hear people refer to their pet as 'it' do we call children ' it' ?? NO good lord no, precious bundles of human genetic material they are ( absolute sarcasm)

Having an animal in your charge is the title of this thread. Some parts of this guardianship are about duty and paying vets fees has nothing to do with love..its the right thing to do. Insurance is the best idea. Attachment to animals has different levels some cant even see the point of any animals existance. Some think only animals that are pedigrees are worth something. Some..loathe cats. I adore them.

Fortunately youre not alone. You keep doing what youre doing and ignore the ignorant beeps.

[Maven]

Tapatalk won't let me hit the "Thanks" button (it doesn't even show it, but it shows me who's thanked you, go figure ) and I'm still learning how to operate my new smartphone and its apps, so I'll just say, "Thanks!"

It makes me sick when I hear people talk like that about animals. I don't think they're lesser beings Different, yes, but not lesser. Imagine if aliens landed on this planet and treated humans as lesser beings, neglecting us, starving us, not bothering with medical treatment, abusing us, and killing us.

[eskielover]

My guinea pigs & my rats always had vet visits & huge bills even my free rat wasn't free....but deserved the car....I even found a wonderful vet where I lived in California that had previously been the vet for the Bush Garden's birds when they had it in Van Nuys, Calif....he was my small critter vet, one of the few that actually worked with small critters. I actually learned a lot about nutrition in fighting cancer in my guinea pigs & learned that rats normally get lung tumors. I was actually able to extent the life of my guinea pig by about a year by changing the diet & adding the foods that helped their body fight cancer. That was back in the late 1960's