Sorry...it has nothing to do with hunting, but I was astounded when I learned this yesterday and had to get this off my chest.

Wife's sister is a cat person. Her and hubby have no children, so their two cats are their "children". Both cats are pound cats and came with known physical ailments. One has a diabetic condition (how do they determine that?) and required $600 a month in daily IV's of insulin, or whatever they give diabetic cats for years....cat's now 14 years old and costing them $600 a month + food, etc. Fourteen year old cat starts feeling worse.....Vet says they gotta remove the spleen. Those relatives with common sense tell them to either take the cat out and shoot it, or have the vet put it down. Noooo....they have to operate! Operation extends the cats life three months and it is then mercifully put down.

The kicker...the surgery for their cat/child cost $11,000....Eleven thousand dollars, which they gladly paid.

A damn 14 year old cat from the pound....I am speechless. And they wonder why they are broke all the time!

I can cure that cat for less than a nickel

At today's ammo prices? Might cost a dime now.

12 x 14 =168 x 400= 67,200 + 11,000= $78,200 Hmmmm...I realize some folks really like cats but.....

I know a couple who are just like that. Spent thousands on an operation at the Univ of Wisconsin for a dog that died a week later. It's crazy if you ask me.

Yep a 22 LR would take care of it and the 11K would make a nice trip to Namibia for some big game hunting. That is if they had any common sense. I can't stand house cats.

They are just being selfish. To those of us who love pets, their loss is a tough one, and there's plenty of stories here about folks having to put down their pets. I don't much care for cats (we have two..and two dogs, but WTF, I don't have a voice here in the house), but that cat is suffering and the VET should exercise some professionalism and tell them it's time to put it down.

this story is analagous for human beings. i know, the story was about cats. but, what if it was about humans, would it matter all that much??

vets do need well-heeled clients if the dogs, cats and birds are to be healed. doctors need really well-heeled clients if they are to continue to drive Mercedes, BMW's and Lexus.

money can heal about anything, up to the point that it doesn't.

but, remember, we practice medicene for profit, ok?

I spent a bit over four grand on one of my dogs, but she lasted another seven and a half years.
Was worth it to me and didn't short anybody else.

Been there and done that, and more than once. But we're talking about a fourteen year old animal.

Crazy, yes...

But it's really up to them as to what they spend their money on...

� and ne'er a nickel to a charity or the homeless, I betcha!

Please tell me they voted for the 0.

when money is concerned, those who have it can spend it their way. those without money have to roll the dice and look for a lucky break.

we're in a hell of a mess, and the vets know it, as do the human docs.

You got that right.

I've seen crazies like this, but to top it off they won't take care of there actual human kids....... [bleep] Douche bags...

Those should be covered under obamacare as predisposing conditions

it's their money



my budget cap is a lot less for sick pets. Thank goodness for that idiom "it's God'd will"

that's what I use, it saves a ton of cash, lol

"You have the right to be a damn fool. If you choose to give-up that right, � "

Their money, their choice. Unless you think you know how to spend money that someone else made better than they do butt out. If you think you know how to spend someone else's money better than they do; you must agree with Obama.

Ernie

Looks like a donation to send the homeless vets kids to expensive school back east.

I never had a choice, was a birth defect.

There's cheaper ways.

Dr. Howell, how do you know this or is it pure speculation?

Ernie

Their money, their business how they choose to spend it. Period.

� and he who's so eager to scorn 'em should first add-up how much he spends on beer, booze, bets, 'n' butts in a year.

(As Huck said about the prissy ol' prig who dipped snuff, "That's different, 'cause she does it herself.")

Now the veterinarian gets to go on a Namibia Safari or take a vacation to their choice of locales.

See,... it all balances out in the end.

Not Dr. Howell, but you need to read to the end of the sentence. There is an "I betcha" there. miles

Not really a cat guy, but back in the 90's I got a couple cats w/ a girlfriend of mine. She's LONG gone, but the cats stayed.

About 2 months in, the little kitten gets all sick. Wont eat, poo, lethargic, hiding under chairs...

I brought her to a vet, diagnosed w/ some intestinal infection. $900 worth of meds and office fees later, I am home w/ my cat. Doc says it'll take a long recovery, and many visits (presumably like the $$ one $$ I'd jsut had.).

Decided that wasnt happening, and I would let nature take its course.

cat died at 13 not too long ago.

Eff the vet.

And yes, you inlaws are nuts, but so long as its THEIR money, thats fine with me.

Godogs57: Wow - $600.00 per month for cat meds for a 14 year old cat - enough already. That is $7,200.00 per year not counting Kibbles & Bits!
That is truly a sorry set of inlaws you have there but, I can top them.
I have a sister inlaw and brother inlaw that live out in taxington and vote demonrat!
They both have bumperstickers on their cars that say "Letter Carriers For obama"!
I doubt if anyone can top that pair of inlaws.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Is there a charity/ homeless quota that must be met before someone spends their money on their pets?

wife's older brother and his wife are similar. No kids, but a housefull of rescue dogs with major medical problems. Dang!

Yes...you win, they really do beat anything I could put up.

Friend Miles, smartasses commonly read just far enough to find something to blurt borborygmus about.

Now there is a word I have not seen before...well done Ken.

"borborygmus � a rumbling or gurgling sound caused by the movement of gas in the intestines."

I can top it.





I have Democrats in the family and they want to blow my money on such stuff.



Even get testy about it.

Well, how about 'abderian'? I am presently so beset.

Put yourself in the cat's shoes ...

I'm not sure how you figure they're sorry because they choose to spend their own hard earned money on their cat. Eccentric maybe, but I can't call them sorry. I've got quite a few neighbors that expect others to pay for raising their kids, to me that's sorry. Spending your own money on an animal you consider to be a member of your family isn't.

this

I shake my head at what my inlaws spend money on

course they probably think my own personal version of REI/Barney's/gunstore/Polaris dealership and my Porsche are just downright cute


and money well spent.......give or take

One hammer swing!!

I believe that it is only human nature, for all of us to have our own lil'idiosyncrasys. Mine is my guns. My wifes is dogs and cats. I've spent well over $100,000 in one way or another for my guns, and I'm sure that we have easily spent that much on my wifes pets--and every other stray dog and cat on the island! If my lady figures that any has a chance for any kind of quality of life, she's gonna see to it that critter gets that chance at life!
Twink

I guess i am one of the "crazy" persons, and that's okay with me.
over the last 20 or so years i have taken in older, rescue golden's most with physical issues, a lot connected with neglect.
Some we had for a short period, others longer. Dollar cost? I quite counting but i am pretty sure its well over 30k in total.
Last year was about 11k, and my puppy just turning a year old had a 4k surgery in november which seems to have corrected the problem.
Personally I don't give a tinker's dam* if you think i am foolish, crazy or whatever. It's my money, I earned it, and I will do with it what i want.
I have had people tell me i am much more in tune with animals than people. I say yes that's true, they treat me better, give me unconditional love, don't use meth, drugs, alcohol, and cause consistent problems.
I just got through watching that video on here about the woman with 15 kids saying somebody has to pay up. Right, sure thing.
I Have had enough money taken out of my hide through the years in taxes which i have had very little to say about how it's spent.
Dogs are a better thing to me.
might add, i have had several diabetic dogs, and neither were at 600bucks a month for insulin, they took the same stuff humans do.

Cats can do strange things to people, especially to females. I had a so caled girlfriend once that would drive down International Dr. in Orlando every day come rain or shine and sit behind a motel with her stay cats while they ate the food she brought them.

and as much as i personally don't have any use for cats, i understand it.
we have had a multigenerational family of pigeons living in a palm tree in our front yard. I trimmed that tree last week, and left enough of the limb so they would have launch/recovery pads.
They are so tame they come up to us in the back yard. Most people see them as flying rats. They didn't see the little one living under by trailer for about a month, wings weren't strong enough to get flight. Parents came down and fed it twice a day till it got stronger.
And i have had several with broken wings probably from car accidents that have lived in the back yard.

The old lady at the other end of our alley used to feed and water every roving cat in town.

Until too many took to hanging around her place all the time. Then she'd have me thin 'em out.

Thats some expensive pu$$y

To answer an earlier post, YES, they voted for Obama. To pile on the story, they went out of town a few months ago....day here, couple of days there, etc and HIRED the vet to come to their house to cat-sit! They didn't dare bring cat/child to the clinic to board..they hired the vet to come over and sit!

At that point in time I only knew about the $600 a month deal and I was howling then to my sweet wife (staunch Republican!)that the vet could only see dollar signs at that point and I bet her that the vet was charging, at a minimum, $150 an hour and was probably hoping that the cat lived forever, so she could get the house paid for and kids all set for college.

It gets better....but I won't bore you fine folks with too many details.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Good for the vet.
Hope he takes his wife to dinner and buys the kids new bicycles.
Maybe even get them a nice healthy kitten from a litter of give aways down the street.

As long as they could tote the bill and weren't asking me for money I would find other stuff to worry about.

I have a hard time faulting anyone for kindness, but in many cases like this the pet owner is only extending the suffering of an animal.

I had a neighbor that fed any and all cats that turned up, she moved house after she came back from a two week holiday and found that someone had cleaned up her twenty-odd cats.

Her new neighbors are now beset with stray cats.


Cat traps...invented by God!

Exactly. You'd be amazed how many folks want to "do everything" to the tune of $250,000 for 85 year-old Grandma, laying in the ICU with kidney failure, on a vent, and stroked out.

Keep in mind, that's not $250k of THEIR money, but TAXPAYER money.

Hey, gambling's easy when it's other people's money....

Some of you guys are forgetting that in the OPs initial statement the words, "and they wonder why they are broke all the time."

me too.



Yep.
(shrug)
Sometimes cats AND their owners need baby sealed.

I saw it, still don't know why you would worry about it unless you were on the hook for the money.

That is my own mother, and there have been times when I wanted to kill the fk'n cats or dog myself.

I understand what ya mean.
One time it was my own mother (anybody tell her this, I'll killya! )
Flea bitten vermin running the place. Couldn't even walk there were so many. Looked like a pestilence waiting to happen.

"I just don't have the heart to kill some of 'em off."

Well, Ma, it ain't nothing about heart. It's about common sense and safety. Not to mention the mess and expense.

She took off for work leaving me all alone for the whole day with nothing in the house but an old rolling block 22 rifle as a companion.
Very bad shape. Even after cleaning it up I was afraid to try it.

but it worked and that ended up being one of the most fun and challenging hunting days of my entire career.

Cats wise up real quick when they realize you're killin 'em off.

About 15 minutes before her expected return I poured a whole big box of dead cats down under the bridge.
And prayed the wind wouldn't blow out of the east making her curious enough to go check.

Shhhh.
I"m serious!
Not a word!

Your story really resonates with me. I paid $10K for a cat several years ago... My wife's 13-year old cat was on its deathbed while we were on vacation in Kauai. Our friend who was cat-sitting took it to the emergency vet, who told her it needed a $5K surgery or was going to die. My wife was in shambles and we decided to pay out. Here's the KICKER. Every day the vet called with a follow-up report, saying it was still "touch and go" and the cat was starting to recover but needed intensive monitoring, at $1K per day. We had the same story every day for 5 days, requesting credit authorization each time. It sucked because we already had $5K invested... It ended up costing us $10K. The cat is now 18.

I think the vet was BS'ing us on the after care, taking advantage of the fact that we had paid out already and were physically away.

After our cats go... no more cats.

Eric

who said I was worried?

Um, Godogs, are these relations of yours Democrats, by any chance?

Nothing sadder than parents wasting their children's inheritance.

Im glad my inlaws are kookballs. Gives me even more reason to not invite them crazy mf'ers over to my house.

There is no way they can spend $600 a month on insulin for a cat. I used a lot an only spent $300 a month with no insurance.

Hit it in the head with a claw hammer and throw it in a ditch in Arkansas

prick

may not can top it but i can give you a funny inlaw story about dogs. my wife's sister thinks every animal she sees is a stray and wants to take it in. She stopped to try and get a "stray dog" it took off running from her out onto the highway and got drilled by a truck. I busted out laughing when they told this. that went over like a turd in a punchbowl.

Best that they didn't breed!!

Exactly. We too have no kids. Our dogs are like children to us and we do a lot for them.

And we donate to other charities also. Not to mention almost 300 hours of volunteer time and over 3000 miles driven in volunteer work in 2012 alone. And I loose track of how much blood I"ve given.

So, its my money, my choice and I suggest some of you should consider that at least now, I"m free to own an AR and treat my dogs as I care to. As long as I'm not abusing them.

Hell lets discuss this a bit more. You say euthanize, yet we are not allowed to do that for a human.

Best I can say here, leave em alone, its their money and their call.

Uh yep....flaming democrats!....you should see the emails I received after the re-election...Obama is gonna save the word now!

If they still think that way, you indeed win the prize for dumbest inlaws

The way I see it....

It's my $, I work 45 hours/week to get that $,

IF I want to spend it on my dog, it's my business.

Bingo! I whipped out $4k for surgery on one of our dogs on Christmas day one year because he had a perforated bowel from a bone splinter. Dog was 5 then and in perfect condition otherwise. Lived to be 13 when he came down with some idiopathic neurological condition. Had him diagnosed at the University, and when his quality of life got poor, we said good-bye. I feel the proper decision was made both times.

I got some cholo in-laws that might raise an eyebrow or two......

Interesting folk to say the least.

u win...them is dumb sob's rite there.....

I saw this, and thought "Gee, Randy doesn't come off as metrosexual. Much".

Then realized you weren't talking about this Barney's.


I also want you to know that you and the missus are in my thoughts. Your Aurora post was spot on. Read it, then went and gave my wife a hug...

That is pretty bad, but here is a good one too. I have a brother that is a doctor in Atlanta, he and his wife don't have kids so their dogs - 3 big ones from the pound - are their "kids". Well, one of them get arthritis and so my brother pays some dog therapist $85.00 an hour to come swim with his dog in their pool. I told him he was [bleep] nuts and he looked at me like I was crazy. Some folks just have too much money.

you can swim with dolphins for not much more

Keeping old sick animals alive is just wrong - even if you ave the money. We had a lab that needed hip surgery - twice - and we paid up with no regrets. But when started really falling apart @ about age 13 we knew what the right thing to do was and we put her down. Right after the vet put her to sleep my wife said to the vet. This must be the hardest thing you do.

No she replied, the hardest thing I do is keep old sick animals alive for their owners who can't just let them go.

I guess we found one that isn't so greedy.

At least its their own money they are spending.

My wife's sister has no job. Her 17 y/o daughter has no job & 2 kids. One of them is 3yrs, the other is about 6 months. Mama & grandma have plenty of cig money, beer money and who knows what else. Not enough money to keep the kids in diapers. 3yr old has no idea what a toilet is.

We live 12 hours away and my wife has spent more time trying to teach her how to use a toilet.

Guess who's money this trash is spending.

Heck, for half that I am prepared to help them dog-paddle with a great white.

Just doing my bit for humanity.

For $11,000 they must have operated at the Mayo Clinic.

I agree on the old sick ones. But in reality we've had some go quite a long time here and really enjoy just being with you and such. But when its miserable its time.

Damn shame we can't do the same after watching a few folks suffer to death the slower way...... can't believe we can allow an animal but not a human.

Another reason I'm glad most of my in-laws can't speak English.

$11000 spent on a cat,,,,,,[bleep] nuts if you ask me.