Rustybird's Blog

PT Cruiser The Cat And The Gang of Six Part 35

 

 

I know what you’re thinking. If we can take care of six cats, why can’t we take care of seven cats? And do you remember we argued that seven would be too much work, and there wouldn’t be enough room on the bed at night? All that is true and should be good and sufficient reasons to resist the temptation for another cat. But there is one more important, overriding reason. Expense.

 

 

Oh, yes. Expense. I’m not talking about paying for food and kitty litter. Though that’s not cheap. We really don’t have a problem allocating a few dollars a day for kitty cat supplies. We can add in the bird food we use to attract birds to the feeder. That would come under the heading of Kittycat Entertainment. So, what does it come to? Maybe

 

fifteen dollars a week? That does add up to seven hundred and eighty dollars for the year, so it is not insignificant. But between us we can muster up the cash needed to sustain our gang of six. However, there is one other expense that pops up.

 

 

Medical Expense.

 

 

We’ve gone through medical exams with all the cats. They have had their rabies shots, Leukemia booster, and FVRCP booster shots. Don’t ask what a FVRCP booster shot is. I have no idea. But it’s listed on the vaccination certificate so it must be important. But not cheap. And a visit to a veterinarian’s office is not cheap. I realize they have to

 

get paid for their  vet education, their office space, and their office help. It all adds up.

 

 

Veterinarians insist that cats need booster shots every year. And then there is flea powder, special foods, vitamin supplements, annual examinations One vet asked if the cats had their teeth cleaned recently. I turned pale at the thought I might have to take the cats to a dentist for root canal work. The list of expenses continues.

 

 

It really hit hard when I had to take Barney, our senior citizen, to the vet’s emergency room when he was showing signs of being ill. An exam, urine specimen, blood test, injection, clavamox drops, chem screen, and two prescriptions later I was presented with a bill for

 

three hundred and fourty dollars. I’m not complaining. Barney improved almost immediately and we were very thankful for that. It was worth it to see Barney feeling and looking good again.

 

 

After that experience and expense I thought that maybe we ought to have a kitty cat HMO. We switched our medical insurance to an HMO recently [we’re over 65] and we get money back from Medicare. Well, Barney is at least fifteen years old now. That’s about 76 in human

 

years. Why can’t he qualify for a kitty cat medicare program or a kitty cat HMO? He has medical expenses too, you know. Multiply the expense of that visit to the vet by six cats and we could face an interhouse financial disaster in the event of a plague.

 

 

When it costs more to take care of the cats than it costs for our owen medical attention, we Have reached the end of taking in additional kitty cats. Six cats is a joy. Seven cats could be a disaster. And so at long last, no more kitty cats. And that is……...FINAL!

 

 

But, have we written the final episode of PT Cruiser The Cat And The Gang of Six?