I really hope that there's no regret in not getting pet insurance for wonder-eyed Hamlet. He was lucky to live such a beloved life.
No. It would have helped some since his last month or so cost $8000 or more, but I have no regrets. Itchy's last 18 months of cancer and his surgery and treatments and meds was the most of any of my cats, close to $19k. That hurt. And I had to take up extra jobs and began selling online as a side business to cover those costs. After I paid it all off I kept selling cat toys online and now use that is a way to make donations to many animal and human charities each year. So I guess a lot of good came out of it in the end.
How many cats do you have overall? I looks like it was a good idea to have that insurance for the two older cats, as more and more health problems can start to appear at that age. Was the teeth cleaning covered by the insurance?
Currently we have 5 cats. In order of age: Orion (12y - was dropped by a hawk in front of my car when he was 3.5 weeks old), Nova (12y - was a stray who was coming to the deck for 6 months. When the winter night temps fell to 50f below I brought him in the shop, then vet, then house), Andromeda & Apollo (11y - their stray mother was mauled to death by a dog when they were 8 weeks old. Andromeda had a femur broken when she was a few days old and now that leg is 50% shorter than her others) and Perseus (5y - found as 4 week old kitten in parking lot with burned and bloody feet. Had to live at vets a month to heal). All are insured and honestly, I hope that they money to insure them was a waste and they never have a lot wrong.
On the teeth cleaning, I did not pay for that in the plan, so just the extractions were covered, not the cleanings or check-ups.
I lost my childhood dog in October, and he had immune system problems his whole life. Like Hamlet, he had nice eyes (one eye was blue, the other was brown).
He looks like a lovely fellow. What was his name?
It is so hard to lose the pets we love. And they love us back, unconditionally. I am sorry that you lost him. He knows how you felt then and feel now.
Just remember, your love manifests as pain/sorrow when you say good-bye, but only at a fraction of the amount of love you felt.
Now, we have two dogs, and a cat, and none have pet insurance. They are all young (the dogs are 0 and 4, the cat is 1). We asked our vet, and she advised against it, since they are all in good health and have no foreseeable health problems.
I agreed with you prior to losing Hamlet, but after so many losses I came to the conclusion that as they age the likelihood of problems increases a lot. Since the insurance is cheapest if you start them young, for me it made sense to get it for all our cats they day Hamlet died. They would not insure Leo because he was older and had so many health issues already, and I understood that. He was at the vets office a lot every month for his many health problems. He deserved such a better life than he had, but then again so do so many other animals (domesticated or not) and people all over the world. Life was never promised to be fair, healthy or good I suppose, and honestly, even on my worst days I consider myself so lucky to have been given life.
Take good care of your dogs and cat! Give your dogs a nice belly rub from me and your cat a nice chin scratch from me.
Sincerely,
David
