Preparing for the worst

I know this is a sensitive topic - but was wondering how/if others had a way of dealing with it. I'm single... have moved around a ton... have good friends... but no children and no real family. This stuff doesnt bother me.... except when trying to figure out what to do should I suffer an unfortunate situation that would require my cats to need re-homing.

I've thought about taking out life insurance policies with each cats care as a contingency of accepting the money. I only mention this because of the number of cats that I encountered who were in shelters because an owner could no longer provide for them, or had passed on. I don't want my crew in a shelter again.

Any insights on how to handle things like this?

thanks... Kath

My Husband and I put our cats in our will.
Some of my family members laughed at us, but the way we see it if something should happen to us our furkids need someone to look after them just as much as our skinkids will.

The same person who's named their caretaker in our will would be the person who would look after them if for some reason we lost our home and had to stay somewhere for a while that didn't allow pets...but he's already told us that if something would God forbide ever happen were supposed to pack up kids and cats and move in with him.

There are various legal options; discuss them with an attorney.

No state currently allows one to set up a trust for the benefit of a pet, although that would seem like a sensible option.

You may want to check with the shelters in your area, particularly if you are going to be there for a while. These links have information on planning for your pets' care:

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/pr...e_without_you/
http://www.petplace.com/small-mammal...ath/page1.aspx
http://www.peteducation.com/article....articleid=2878

We put our cats in our Last Will and Testament. We chose the people with whom they would live and made financial arrangements for their care up until their death. We made provisions for how said money should be spent if they needed treatments that would offer them a normal lifespan should they become ill, as opposed to simply being put down for whatever reason.

Sounds crazy to some, but they're our kids and it made perfect sense to us.