I live in a lower-income neighborhood in town here (Fremont, CA). The area's not trashy or anything, but it's the cheaper-housing part of town, and many of the people here live on pretty modest incomes; few new, expensive cars, fancy stereos or any of that stuff. Pets of all kinds are VERY popular, but cats and dogs tend to run free.
One of the problems with caring for pets is that vets are almost prohibitively expensive anymore!! It's almost as bad as human doctors, and insurance doesn't cover it. When we adopted Yoda last summer, after finding him sitting in the sun with pus coming out of his closed eyes, all the directly-related medical expenses to get him healthy ran nearly $2000 !! If we hadn't done all of that, he would have at minimum been blind, but more likely would have just died.
Even bringing home a healthy kitten costs $100-$200 for initial treatments; if our neighbors with the elderly cat wanted to take her in and see what's going on with her, and then treat her rather than put her to sleep, would likely run hundreds of dollars. They have a weed-grown yard and drive decade-old cars; they clearly don't have that kind of disposable income, even were they so inclined.
Unlike us, most people really *don't* consider their pets to be on the same scale of importance as their human family members, and these kinds of costs are just out of the question for many of them... with the result that the companion animals end up just not getting the care that they need...
Yeah, so what's your point, derelict?? I'm not sure, maybe I just needed to rant some... it's not like I expect vets to work for free or anything, Pet Doctors Sans Frontiers or any such... but it's hard to blame other families that don't take their pets to the vet regularly, and yet that is sooo important to their healthy lives...
hmmmph... rant rant rant... sorry everyone...
One of the problems with caring for pets is that vets are almost prohibitively expensive anymore!! It's almost as bad as human doctors, and insurance doesn't cover it. When we adopted Yoda last summer, after finding him sitting in the sun with pus coming out of his closed eyes, all the directly-related medical expenses to get him healthy ran nearly $2000 !! If we hadn't done all of that, he would have at minimum been blind, but more likely would have just died.
Even bringing home a healthy kitten costs $100-$200 for initial treatments; if our neighbors with the elderly cat wanted to take her in and see what's going on with her, and then treat her rather than put her to sleep, would likely run hundreds of dollars. They have a weed-grown yard and drive decade-old cars; they clearly don't have that kind of disposable income, even were they so inclined.
Unlike us, most people really *don't* consider their pets to be on the same scale of importance as their human family members, and these kinds of costs are just out of the question for many of them... with the result that the companion animals end up just not getting the care that they need...
Yeah, so what's your point, derelict?? I'm not sure, maybe I just needed to rant some... it's not like I expect vets to work for free or anything, Pet Doctors Sans Frontiers or any such... but it's hard to blame other families that don't take their pets to the vet regularly, and yet that is sooo important to their healthy lives...
hmmmph... rant rant rant... sorry everyone...