A cat forum. CatBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » CatBanter forum » Cat Newsgroups » Cat health & behaviour
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

What Price For Kitty?



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #51  
Old February 15th 05, 12:22 AM
John Ross Mc Master
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 15:22:04 -0500, equalizer wrote:

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 04:43:48 GMT, "Glarb"
wrote:

I've been thinking about this. I have spent huge sums of money on the cat I
have had for the past seven or eight years. But I have money, and I don't
think about it. But if I didn't have money -- let's say living from
paycheck to paycheck -- and the vet came in and said, "$850 for labwork and
surgery." Forgive me, but I would probably have to draw the line there and
have the poor thing put to rest. I know this makes me a bad person, but
come on y'all, what is your true limit on such matters?

Glarb



I'm doing well, and in fact in lieu of insurance, I have an emergency
bank account set up for the cats that has about $1600 in it so far. I
put in $10 a week plus whatever interest my savings account makes. Never
the less, each cat (I have 4) has a separate credit card with a $10000
line on each. They've never been used and are stored in my fireproof
safety box. If need be, I'd max 'em out and get more.

eq


That's a good idea about the credit cards. I'll start accepting those
offers that always come in the mail.

  #52  
Old February 15th 05, 12:24 AM
Steve G
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Glarb wrote:
(...)

For a family member I would sacrifice everything,
including my own life.


You would? I wouldn't.

There is a strict limit on the cat, however. Come on people,
get real.


I'm sure there is a practical limit for all of us, but I cannot say
what mine is. It's very difficult to play the hypotheticals here, and
this is something I've thought about before. I think the decision is
likely to be based on quality of life, rather than cash per se.

For people who have a fairly concrete cash limit, what determines this?
The cost of the pet? Intelligence of the pet? Would you pay less to
save a rat than a cat? I keep rodents as well as cats, and I must admit
that I would not break the bank to save the former. This is not a
decision based on cost, just that I feel less attachment to my rodents
than my cats. (If rat people heard me say this they would stuff lab
blocks up my nose until they came out of my ears).

From elsewhere on the magical interweb, via a thread elsewhere on

rpch+b, an animal rights activist addresses a student audience:

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_.../headline/2732

'Speaking to over 100 horrified spectators, Best said he'd sacrifice
the life of a stranger to save his dog.

Here's how The Daily Iowan reported the incident:

"If you saw a baby dying and a dog dying, which would you save?" one
audience member asked.

"You need to be more specific with your question," Best replied. If a
house with his dog and someone he didn't know was burning, he said he
would save his dog, prompting another wave of gasps. '

Clearly the website - and the audience - strongly rails against the guy
saving his dog versus an unknown human.

I wonder how many of us here think we would choose the cat over the
human. I'm sure I would choose my cat over an unknown human.

It's also very easy to make up bizarre hypotheticals about what you
would do to save your cat. Amputate a finger? A limb? Kill someone? Eat
tripe? Your own tripe? ('Well, I would stab myself in the ear
repeatedly with a frozen herring, but I wouldn't saw off my wrist using
a sharpened carrot.') In the end I'm not sure how much any of these
games matter when the faecal matter hits the rotary air-agitation
apparatus.

Steve.

  #54  
Old February 15th 05, 12:44 AM
Steve G
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Mary wrote:
"Steve G" wrote in message
oups.com...

(...)

Are you saying you would sacrifice your life for your cat(s)?


How does that follow?


Oops, I think my scissors slipped. Giving some context, Glarb said:

"For a family member I would sacrifice everything, including my own
life. There is a strict limit on the cat, however. Come on people, get
real."

And you said:

"Okay. "Real" is that you don't love your cats the way many of us do. "

Which seems to imply that you would sacrifice your life for your cats.

Steve.

  #55  
Old February 15th 05, 12:54 AM
Hemmaholic
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Mary and Anyone else Interested,

Have your sister get in touch with SPAYUSA. I'm not sure of the URL,
so just do a Google for it. There is help out there!

Hemma

  #56  
Old February 15th 05, 01:19 AM
Mary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Steve G" wrote in message
oups.com...

Mary wrote:
"Steve G" wrote in message
oups.com...

(...)

Are you saying you would sacrifice your life for your cat(s)?


How does that follow?


Oops, I think my scissors slipped. Giving some context, Glarb said:

"For a family member I would sacrifice everything, including my own
life. There is a strict limit on the cat, however. Come on people, get
real."

And you said:

"Okay. "Real" is that you don't love your cats the way many of us do. "

Which seems to imply that you would sacrifice your life for your cats.

Steve.


Ahh, okay, I see.

I mentioned in a previous post that I do not consider my cats to be
"like family members." I consider them to BE family members, albeit
not genetically.

In saying this: "For a family member I would sacrifice everything, including
my own
life. There is a strict limit on the cat, however. Come on people, get

real." Glarb
is saying that he differentiates, with regard to how much he would spend in
order
to save/help his family members and his cats.

Now if I consider my cats, with regard to how much I would spend on their
health, to be on par with my human family members and Glarb considers his
to be less, then I love my cats more than he loves his cats. It seemed
simple
to me. This is why he can even stand to THINK about "Well, $600 I might
do, but at $850 they can euthanize the cat. (And that is why "What the
hell is wrong with you" was my idea of an appropriate response to his
question. Because of the way I feel about my cats, he might as well have
asked, "Okay, how much would you really spend to save Granny? Your
house? Your car? Everything you own?"

I would never make any statement about sacrificing my life--for anything.
Not
that I necessarily would not, I just really would not announce it on Usenet,
whether I would or wouldn't. My sense is that the phrase itself if not truly
meant by most people who use it.


  #57  
Old February 15th 05, 01:52 AM
Monique Y. Mudama
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On 2005-02-15, Mary penned:

Now if I consider my cats, with regard to how much I would spend on their
health, to be on par with my human family members and Glarb considers his to
be less, then I love my cats more than he loves his cats. It seemed simple
to me. This is why he can even stand to THINK about "Well, $600 I might do,
but at $850 they can euthanize the cat. (And that is why "What the hell is
wrong with you" was my idea of an appropriate response to his question.
Because of the way I feel about my cats, he might as well have asked, "Okay,
how much would you really spend to save Granny? Your house? Your car?
Everything you own?"


When you put it that way, your initial response makes a lot more sense to me.

On some level, though, we do have to make these decisions for our human
relatives. Someone close to me has recently been wrestling with the question
of how much treatment to give an elderly family member who's had Alzheimer's
for years and so, in many senses, really isn't herself anymore, anyway. Now,
yes, these questions are mostly a matter of "will this just prolong her
suffering, or will it actually allow her to live a decent life for a while
longer?", but it does seem to me that at some level, there's a monetary
factor. You might keep a close relative who's not "themselves" anymore alive
as long as is physically possible if money were in infinite supply, but would
you mortgage your house for a few more days with a person who doesn't even
recognize you anymore? Who isn't even aware of her surroundings? "You" in
this case meaning the generic third-person, not you in particular.

Thinking about it now, if I eventually am in this sort of situation, I do not
want my family going broke trying to keep me alive for a few more days or
months when there's no hope of a true recovery.

As ugly as it is, I do think that money is a factor. At least in situations
where it's not clear that the patient will actually improve.

Getting back to pets, I know that my parents would not have spent thousand(s)
of dollars on my dog Puma if he had needed surgery. They strongly believe in
pet responsibility, but I guess they did have some nebulous idea about how
much they'd do for a pet. Then again, this was never put to the test. Maybe
they would have changed their minds if it had come to that. Me, I have
trouble imagining myself allowing Oscar to come to harm if I could at all
possibly prevent it, but I'm sure there's a point at which I would say
"enough's enough." I can't imagine what that point would be, but it would
probably have as much to do with Oscar's misery as with the monetary aspect.
I can't imagine a situation in which the medical expenses were too high for me
to realistically pay *and* she had any decent chance of a full recovery. I
would imagine that if I needed to pay a lump sum beyond my means, the
prognosis would not be good.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca
  #58  
Old February 15th 05, 02:06 AM
-L.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Glarb wrote:
"-L." wrote in message
I also recognize that many people with cats truly cannot afford
adequate vet care. Yes, they shouldn't have cats if they cannot

afford
them, but many people do. They do the best with what they have.


If you limited pet ownership to people who can afford catastrophic

health
care for their pet, then you'd have an awful lot of homeless dogs and

cats,
don't you think?


Absolutely. But I truly think if one cannot afford "adequate" pet
care, one shouldn't have a pet. I didn't get a pet until I made well
over $40K/year (1990), just for that reason.

-L.

  #59  
Old February 15th 05, 02:09 AM
-L.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Karen Chuplis wrote:
snip

The problem is that often people who talk and think in limits as our
original poster are not scraping the bottom. Rather, they are just

talking
about money that is available. They are not talking about losing

their house
etc.


Well, is getting to the point of losing your house a sane limit,
though? It isn't in my book...

I hated when people would surrender their animal for euth because of
lack of funds and then go out and get in their BRAND NEW CAR. Grrrr.

-L.

  #60  
Old February 15th 05, 02:10 AM
-L.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Glarb wrote:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
It's a scary question, but I'm sure that all of us have wondered at

one
time
or another how much we could really afford to spend to keep our

loved ones
alive. That's one of the reasons so many folks talk about either

having
pet
insurance or keeping a separate account just for pet emergencies.


For a family member I would sacrifice everything, including my own

life.
There is a strict limit on the cat, however. Come on people, get

real.

I agree. I just don't know what that limit is because it is
circumstance-dependant.

-L.

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[Really OT!] Price Estimate Help Jeanne Hedge Cat anecdotes 33 August 25th 04 02:07 PM
veterinary drugs in UK - where can I get in EEC at reasonable price ? icarus Cat health & behaviour 6 June 14th 04 04:52 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:42 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 CatBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.