DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Pets (and Hope)

Today is an interesting anniversary, and I've been meaning to put down my thoughts on it, and this is as good a place as any, I guess.

I was never much of a pet person. My parents always had dogs when I grew up, but once I left the nest, I never really took on any pets (I always thought it was near cruel to keep a dog in a city apartment).

But about 8 years ago, a friend who volunteered at a shelter sent out a plea for anyone interested to adopt special needs pets, as they were due for euthanasia by week's end.

To my surprise, I ended up taking in a kitten that had been rescued from a meth lab raid. He had lighter burns all over his stomach and a partially melted ear (apparently the place he was born was filled with sociopaths who burned the kittens for fun).

I was warned several times that he would require special attention, both emotionally and financially, but after I'd first looked into the little guy's eyes, the answer was always going to be "yeah, sure, whatever".

The bills racked up quickly - he had a urinary infection problem that is recurring, costly, and potentially fatal. I ended up springing for pet insurance after the third year of four figure vet bills.

So when I took him in for the human equivalent of extremely concentrated kidney stones three years ago today, I was expecting a high expense - each trip usually ran about $400-700, and it was my fourth or fifth rodeo. I wasn't expecting the vet to sit me down for "the talk".

"The blockage is very solid, and we cannot insert a catheter. There's nothing more we can do."

After the gamut of emotions whirring through my brain, I blurted out, seemingly without thinking, "No. That's unacceptable."

"I know this is hard, but here's nothing we can do."

"Where's the other doctor?", I asked, knowing that this particular vet ER had three rotating doctors (two during the week and a junior partner on weekends).

"He will be in tomorrow, but Mister-"

"Call him now. If you can't give me the right answer, call him now."

I know I sound like a jerk there, and I probably was. But he did, in fact, call the other doctor, who rushed in for a second opinion. While he was en route, the assistant pulled me aside to kindly give me a talk about expectations and acceptance. I (probably coldly) told her I would wait for the second opinion.

That second opinion was a $4500 sex change operation that was described to me as a "Hail Mary". "Make no mistake - this very well may fail, and if it does, I'm not in a position to give you a discount. I hate to be so blunt, but I feel the need to warn you."

I had done alright for myself in life, but that's some serious sticker shock for anyone, especially on something sold as less than a coin flip. But, of course, I paid it, and my little guy lived and he's still here with me, three years later to the day.

Never give up hope.

Glad you still have your pet, bro! Heart warming!!

About 9 years ago we spent $2500 on a knee replacement for our rescue dog, Lucy. She was a red Shepherd-Husky mix, 9 years old when it happened, and I had family and friends tell me we were crazy since we were not exactly rolling in cash and she was approaching geriatric status for a dog her size. But we did it and I never regretted it. Because she wasn't "like family", she was family. She lived to be 15; we had to let her go 2 years ago, and a day doesn't go by when I don't miss her. But I feel happy that we were able to give her those 6 additional (mostly) happy years.

Good job by you with your buddy.

Awesome story!

Pets are great. great love story!

Great posts, both of you.

Great post. Excellent. Very touching to me. I grew up with all kinds of animals from deer, raccoons, rabbits, birds and a little bit of everything.

I have two cats. They're my best friend. I love them both greatly and would've paid the bill as' well. I take them in for checkups all the time. My one cat started to snore real loud, and I took him in just to make sure he's okay, which he was.

Animals consume our hearts, and in most cases - they're like family. My cats love me likely as much as I love them.

Some day, I'll talk about "Bella the Rottie/spinal surgery."

But not today.
Today is about your triumph.
so happy for you and yours.

Great story man. GREAT STORY!!!

They truly are family.

You are very fortunate to be able to afford spending thousands and thousands of dollars on medical expenses for your rescue cat. Even against the medical advice of your veterinarian.

Veterinarians have a profound appreciation and love for animals. Much more so than pet owners. They’ve dedicated their lives to help animals. When they advice that an animal be put down, they do so because it truly is in the best interest of the animal to avoid unnecessary suffering.

Anyway.

Approximately one million humans starve to death annually. That’s 3,000 people every day.

Every single day.

Three thousand people will starve to death today and again tomorrow and the day after that.

Many are children who didn’t ask for or deserve this horrible death.



Fortunately, you can save many of these children's lives.

Your $500 donation today will save 100 children’s lives tomorrow. And your regular periodic donations will save even more lives.

I can tell from your other posts that you’re highly compassionate and would sacrifice anything to help this suffering.

Please keep us informed how many babies you saved.

Where is it written that someone who takes steps to save a loved one - even if its an animal - doesn't donate time or money to causes that ease human suffering? You act as if those two behaviors are mutually exclusive, while I would say that they are both examples of the same sense of compassion, and more likely to occur in combination by an individual. Your presumptuousness is pretty breathtaking and insulting, since nobody here knows what the people who post here do or don't do with regards to charitable giving. But I'd like to think that the tendency would be to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Dude, $4500 for a cat. I'm not a Liberal so I won't tell you how to spend your money but jeez. What about wounded worriers, or those kid you see onTV for $19 bucks a month? What about poor kids in Africa that Rocky was talking about. There is a lot of good you could have done for Humans with $4500.

I can get you all the cats you want for nothing. Just PM me.

Wish our Con brothers would put American kids first. Disgusting to see them pander to African countries, when there are million of Americans facing food scarcity. Disgusting. But what can one expect from Cons nowadays.

BUILD THE WALL. BAN THE KIDS.

Wounded worriers?

Theres a lovers quarrel in there somewhere.

Honestly, DT must have been in the Holiday spirit this week. Usually a thread about a tranny cat would be destroyed in three hours, with posters asking how to explain this to their children, if the cat should still be allowed to use a litterbox, or some other nonsense about how the cat will create a new caliphate in Arizona where Sharia law will reign like it does in France.

Honestly, I thought it was a great insult for people who have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Why is everyone giving PDF crap anyways.

If you are a pet owner then you know the strong bond they have with you. And they are living, feeling creatures with their own personalities and emotions.

When you love someone, you move heaven and earth for them. And that includes pets as well.

I'm pretty convinced that animals are better than most people.

So props to PDF and his cat.

I don't care for pdf the poster.

But, I know what having pets is like. I obviously don't have the coin he has, and that's fine, but I know what having a pet is like.

Sammy the cat, Mo my lab.........even Dummy the current dog - they give much more than they take.

If/since he was in a position to pay $4500 to save his cat (although, he had insurance I guess) who's to blame him?


Maybe he gives a lot of money to charities, maybe he doesn't, who knows?

I know the time will come when either I'm burying Sammy or Dummy, OR they'll be looking in my casket.

Everyone does what they need to do.

I hope PDF donates to help others other than his pet, but, it's his money, and his life. I'd also like to encourage people to donate to their local humane societys. Those animals don't deserve to be there.


JMO

Not aimed at Arch...

Who are you all to judge how PDF spends his money.

There is nothing that says people should donate to charity instead of saving a loved ones life.

What kind of screwed up logic is that.

You all are comparing apples and oranges.

You do realize that giving to charity and saving your pets life are two completely different topics. Not remotely related. Right?

I couldn't spend $4500 on my dog. If he became that ill, then I would have to look at the most humane way of handling his end of life. Luckily he is going on 11, I have had him for 10 of those years, and the Lord has blessed him with great health.

That all said, if my dog was sick, and it would cost me the limits of what I have, I would think very hard about justifying the cost. My dog is part of the family. If someone else has the wherewithal to be able to do more for their pet, then by all means they should do so, if that is what they want.

There’s some real lame-brained posts above.

I couldn’t care less how pdf spends his money.

I’m annoyed by his hypocritical, holier-than-thou posts.

I guess the lame brain posts you are referring to would be yours.

If you have a beef with him, then go post it somewhere relevant.

Because posting crap about his cat just seems.....bitter.

Come on guys, How many of you would really put $4500 bucks in a cat in that shape? Hell if I was in the shape that cats in I w ould say just let me go. I sure would not want to wake up and find out I had my sex changed.

Two questions:

Are you a pet owner?

Have you ever had a health problem?

Not right now but I have had dogs. I grew up on a farm. We had lots of animals. Hogs, chickens,White Faced cattle ( beef cattle), coon dogs and a farm dog (border collie). Can't say I was really attached to any of them. Maybe the collie a little bit. None of them were family and yes lots of cats that shifted for themselves in the barn.

No serious health problems

I guess thats the dichotomy.

Farm animals arent always pets.

If you had a pet that you formed a bond with, who was a family member, you might feel different.


Pets arent really disposable, like you insinuated earlier.

PDF, I'm sorry for the ignorance going on. People just don't understand the bond.

Don't let the crap being said ruin your bond with your cat and the situation three years ago. Don't let it ruin it not one damn bit.

If pdf had spent the $ 5,000+ to save over 1,000 lives he’d be a great hero and proponent of social justice (as he holds himself out to be).

Sure, it’s his money, he can do what he what’s with it.

But the posters on this thread who think pdf is some sort of hero for dropping $ 5,000+ on his cat are messed-up.

Lets take the money out of the discussion, because I think it is a false narrative that spending what some would consider to be an exorbitant amount saving a beloved pet necessarily precludes charitable giving, and beyond that, its truly nobody's business. For instance, a quick check of automobile ads in the Saturday sports newspaper show that I could lease a Toyota 4Runner for $239 a month with $3000 down at signing OR I could lease a Cadillac Escalade for $899 a month with $3500 down at signing. Is it immoral to get the Escalade? You could feed a lot of children with $660 a month, after all. But the point is we don't live in a collective society, where behaviors involving consumption are decided by government decree. Its about individual freedom in a capitalist society. Before anyone says that's a bad thing, I'd remind them that it allows us to have the standard of living we have, and the disposable income to have the highest rate of charitable giving (as an individual percentage of GDP) in the world.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...s-a6849221.html

What I think this thread is about is the need we all have to fight back against the forces of chaos in our lives, to say "No - enough of this BS.", and to win. The cost may be high, and it may not even have a happy ending, but the reward is inestimable; priceless really, and not just in the saving of a pet. But also in your sense of having stood up to those forces of chaos and just this once - you won.

Damn Dave, that is EPIC!

How 'bout we look at it this way, if PDF can drop that much on his cat; just imagine how much he does drop on charity!

You may not care for PDF, but making yourself look like an ass isn't helping.

Come on Pit,just because Rocky doesn't agree with you and PDF is no reason to call him a ass.
Eve doesn't agree with my take on the $4500 dollar cat but she didn't call me names and I didn't call names either.

There are some very sick, disgusting, racist posts on this thread.



I didn’t even have that big of a problem with pdf.

Just his “holier than thou”, social injustice posts over in the political forum. And then above talking about dropping $ 5,000+ for his cat.

But some of the replies on this thread, by people I’ve met, by people I thought I knew. Are far worse. Far more serious.

I guess I’m not a very good judge of character.

Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious.

some of you guys are really mean.

My thoughts on Wednesday when looking at this thread:

Yup, a great story. No way anyone can ruin this.

My thoughts on Saturday when seeing this thread is still going: