How many of you...

[cellardweller]

How many of you take in feral/stray cats, and how can you afford the vet bills?

I can barely afford to treat the human entities in my household!

[Dragon]

Well, we certainly do...my wife was talking to a breed rescue organization the other day, and when she described our situation, they thought we were an organized rescue group ourselves!

As to how we "afford" the vet bills...we don't. We just pay them. I have no idea how, but we scrape up the money when necessary. Sometimes we can find inexpensive spay/neuter services for ferals.

[zed32]

i took in one feral cat, didn't cost me too much. i still have to buy her food and stuff though. i dunno if i could handle many more animals though, cuz the costs do pile up.

[Dogman]

Originally Posted by cellardweller

How many of you take in feral/stray cats, and how can you afford the vet bills?

I can barely afford to treat the human entities in my household!

Hey CD, what's shaking?

All of our animals are some sort of rescue, 6 cats, 4 dogs, 2 guinea pigs and a rabbit. It really doesn't cost that much, and fortunately, our vet is also a friend, so medical is minimal.

[true-eurt]

I have done so off and on for years, when I could. It is quite expensive to give them proper care, but it is hard to look at those faces of love and walk away.

I am appalled by people who dump animals.

[Mrs Dogman]

We afford it because we can't emotionally afford not to afford it.
We saw a stray dog once when we were out on a bike ride and we didn't stop.
When we passed by the same place a while later, someone was just loading it into their car after having hit it with the car. We can't just walk away anymore. (At least the woman had the decency to take it to the veterinarian nearby although it wasn't moving).

Those strays need everyone's help. If not me/us, then who?

we just love animals...

[legionserial]

All my life my dad took in the immense amount of strays that semed to gravitate towards him. He never looked at them as his cats, he just fed the and kept them warm in the winter. When it came time to take them tothe vet he would. Unfortunately in a lot of cases, the cats have been quite sick when they found us, and sadly we've had to put a few down. He has taken in and rescued a few when they were young that ended up being our pets for 18 years. Of the first 2 cats I remember having, my dad found one, a big fluffy ginger tom that we called Sammy, living in a box in a our hedge, he went away in the end. We can only assume he went away to die as he was about 18 by then.. The other cat, Supersox, was going to be drowned as a kitten by some evil bitch my mum worked with, so my mum took her and we had her for years until she died of a kidney faliure also aged 18. The next cat Murphy was a blue and the only cat from a breeder and my last stepmum took him when she left, Sylvester appeared at our back door one day and never left, and eventually died of lukemia, and Dave followed me home from the pub one day and kept coming back.

As for paying pet bills in general, I think pet insurance is about £6 a month.

[Monkey Allen]

When I was a kid my aunty found our first cat 'Purseville' or 'Percy' at the dump when it was a kitten. There's an outside chance that it was just briefly apart from its mum who lived at the dump...but my aunty took it for a stray. He lived with us for about 16 years and died when I was 17. Big ginger cat he was. Great cat.

My grandma took in plenty of strays in her years. She had dogs and cats all over the place. She had no problems spending money on them...they, along with her garden and whatever else she used to do were a joy for her.

[Mrs Dogman]

Originally Posted by Monkey Allen

When I was a kid my aunty found our first cat 'Purseville' or 'Percy' at the dump when it was a kitten. There's an outside chance that it was just briefly apart from its mum who lived at the dump...but my aunty took it for a stray. He lived with us for about 16 years and died when I was 17. Big ginger cat he was. Great cat.

My grandma took in plenty of strays in her years. She had dogs and cats all over the place. She had no problems spending money on them...they, along with her garden and whatever else she used to do were a joy for her.

She was a great teacher for you.

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by legionserial

As for paying pet bills in general, I think pet insurance is about £6 a month.

Must be the National Health mentality over there (not a putdown BTW). Over here the cost is just as frightful as it is for humans.

[mrT]

Originally Posted by Dragon

Must be the National Health mentality over there (not a putdown BTW). Over here the cost is just as frightful as it is for humans.

One time my cat was limping and just seemed to be weak overall. I had to go to work so I had my girlfriend take the cat to the vet.

After the vet performed a physical, X-rays, Barium swallow and some other stuff she wanted me to pay her $350 for the official diagnosis of... an upset stomach.

Needles to say we had some words about it. In the end she knocked it down to $120. I will never go back there again.