Or my second title for this post: You love your pet HOW MUCH? haha...I found this pet cost breakdown via Kiplinger the other day, so I thought I'd share and see what you all thought about it.

I've never drilled down and detailed out exactly how much our own pets have cost us, but from the looks of it these numbers below seem pretty accurate.

Here's what Kiplinger & The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals lists as what pets cost on average (you can see the much cooler & fancier graph here):

Pet	First Year Cost*	Annual Cost
Small Dog	$1,050	$580
Medium Dog	$1,260	$695
Large Dog	$1,435	$875
Cat	$1,035	$670
Rabbit	$1,055	$730
Guinea Pig	$705	$635
Small Mammal (ferrit,etc)	$340	$300
Small Bird	$270	$200
Fish	$235	$35
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Does not include adoption or purchase cost

We own 2 cats (one speedy little booger, and one fatty hungry boy) and I'd say $670/year sounds about right for each. They both go to the vet at least once a year to get checkups and all - and usually more for our older one - and we go through cat litter & food like none other. In fact as I type this the little one just jumped up next to me to eat his dinner :) We have to put it on our breakfast nook/table so that fatty Bob won't eat it from her! It's a good thing they're cute.

I also have a handful of fish, and I know for sure I spend way more than $35 a year on them (I also specifically say "I" instead of "we" as the Mrs. could do w/out them. She gets very sad when they randomly die). If I had to take a guess, I'd say I go through at least $200/year with all the live plants and food, and filters, and fish replacements, etc etc. And if I had a saltwater tank? Hah! That would be at least $50/mo easily. Actually, if you ever want to blow through hundreds of dollars super fast, get a salt water aquarium. They're beautiful as hell, but man do they run up your tab!

Overall, these numbers above are meant to be averages though. Good starting points if you're considering a larger family. They don't include adoption fees (and I doubt pet insurance?) but they seem to be pretty on track from my experience. What do you all think? Do they align up okay? Or do you have zero pets, and thus much richer than us? ;)

Labels: about j., pets

One of our eldest cats (we'll call him Bob), is starting to get up their with age, he just turned 10, and Pet Insurance is looking quite sexy these days.

The problem is, or problems really, is that I have absolutely NO experience or knowledge, or even a clue for that matter, about any of this stuff. Like, is Pet Insurance even worth it? Does it cover checkups, accidents, anything and everything? Not a clue.

In fact, I'm specifically posting about this today so that i'll force me to do a little research ;) That way we all learn a little somethin' somethin', and then YOU leave me comments about whether pet insurance is retarded or not. Esp. for all you Vets out there - you know who you are. Deal or no deal? Good good...now here we go.

As I mentioned, i'm starting from scratch here, so i figured the best way to start is to plug in "pet insurance" and see what Google googlizes for us. Here are the top 3 sites (not ads) that showed up under this keyword. Keep in mind, I'll be focusing on the cat stuff since Bob, and his sister LaLaLa, are of these species. Here's what we got:

VPI Pet Insurance :: petinsurance.com
First Impression: Awesome! Sharp, clean, easy to navigate and very professional looking. Their toll-free # is bold up at the top, and right off the bat I'm inclined to use them. They even have a "10 things to ask before buying Pet Insurance" page! I'm liking that.
Animals they cover: dogs, cats, birds, and exotic pets (like sugar gliders! what?)
Packages: Focusing on just cats here, there are 3 options you can go with. You can see them here.
Quote: You fill out a few questions online, and then give you a quick quote right away...except for Bob. Turns out he's too old to insure due to "underwriting guidelines"! Poor Bob :( I still want a guestimate for this sorta stuff though, so i tried our 2 year old cat - we'll call her LaLaLa. She's apparently worthy, and it pumped out a range of $7.88/mo. up to a max of $38.33 depending on the package. Either way, it def. seems worth it! that ish is expensssssive.

PetCare :: petcareinsurance.com
First Impression: Eh, so-so. Not as cozy looking as the previous one, but def. "Vet-like". They also state their the "#1 choice of North American pet owners", so they gotta be good ;)
Animals they cover: dogs, cats
Packages: 4 choices to choose from, with lots and lots of information. You can check 'em here.
Quote: YAYYYY, Bob can be protected! $9.95 for the smallest package, $11.95 for the medium one, and $21.95 for "the best" one. From the bat already cheaper than LaLaLa's quote above - and she's 8 years younger? So i plopped her info in and WOW did it come back w/ options! 9 different ones actually, all depending on the amount of coverage i wanted. But the 3 comparable ones here were $9.95, $25.95, and $38.45 respectively....in the same ballpark as VPI's insurance. This also tells me that the packages for Bob probably aren't the best out there, but at least they'd still cover him!

Pets Best Insurance :: petsbest.com
First Impression: cute, warm, and "salesy" right off the top. Top half of page dedicated to giving you a quote..can't tell if i like this or not, but i'm giving it a shot! oh, and in their FAQs they state that no pet is too old for pet insurance! i'm like that already...
Animals they cover: looks to be just dogs & cats.
Packages: 3 options with all sorts of coverage. Clicky here for the deets.
Quote: Negative. You have to enter your email address to get an instant quote...sorry Charlie (or Bob & LaLaLa i should say), but i'm not doing it. Not worth the possible amount of emails i'll get down the road from them. BUT, they do state all over, that the monthly packages start at $19.99 so that gives me something to consider, and I already know Bob can be covered.

Wowww, so lots of information huh? It took a little bit putting this together, but at least i know some more now. It still hasn't swayed me to act on it yet, but i'm hoping some of you might have a few nuggets of knowledge to share with us :) And in the meantime?

We'll just keep loving the hell out of Bob & LaLaLa and hope it's enough to keep them out of the Vet's clinic! They're indoor cats anyways, so unless they trip and fall while eating dinner, they should be out of harms way. haha....

Labels: insurance, pets