The costs of pets...

So today I gave the vet a call, just wanting to get an estimate of how much $$ I was going to shell out for our dogs this spring. I've been wanting to get them both tested for heartworms, as well as Hailey's rabies vaccine (picked up her booster Parvo vaccine this afternoon) so we can get them tagged and all that good stuff... After the call with the vet, I feel like putting them back on Pedigree (screw it, Old Roy) and forgetting all about heartworms, Parvo, Rabies, etc. and leaving them at home where they are "safe" and sound.

So I'm looking at about $310 for Hailey's checkup, heartworm test, 6mo. supply of heartworm medication, rabies shot + Hershey's heartworm test and 6mo. supply. Thankfully Hershey won't need to have another examination since he's been seen there before, and we can get Hailey's rabies vaccine at the same time so we won't have to go in for a seperate visit. And we're still making payments on Static's last choking incident.

This wouldn't be so hard if their dog food wasn't nearly $50 for a 35lb bag. And we wonder why we're poor. Also, Hershey and Hailey don't want to eat the $50 dog food unless I poor $18 probiotics on top of it. And they can't go out without their $24 head harnesses (without freaking out and pulling us over all the time anyway) and $35 matching leather leashes. Well, maybe the leashes was me. At least I got Hailey a cheap nylon collar since she's growing out of them like a weed in a flowerpot.

We love our pets (maybe not Keith sometimes ;) ) and want to do everything for them, but I thank God we don't have any more than we do. We still have to get Theo fixed - I'm thinking of doing the surgery myself at this point! Here we can't afford a $30 surgery for our one cat, but we can afford $300-$400 in vet bills for the dogs and $500 for the horses to fake choke. Poor Theo.

So once I can get ahold of the huge vet bills we'll be having in the next few months maybe it will drive me to yet another job... Maybe God will bless us with a huge tax refund for no good reason? God or the President save us!