We used to have a cat named Sam and a dog named Ralph

And my sister had a cat named Camel

Oh well, a towel or two that Gordon eats is a nice clean food at least.

One of our cats vomited up her beef yesterday.

I went outside to clean it up and found our food obsessed kitten had cleaned it up for me.

YUCK!

We left our 3 cats behind when we came over as they were pretty elderly and the vet was of the opinion it would not have been a good idea to bring them, so we rehoused them with the neighbours whose houses they raided anyway and have been very happy.

We now have Mickey our little chiuhua / fox terrier cross and he would get what ever care was needed no matter what the cost. Rather find myself living in a wheely bin and him healthy.

This is my Micks

We had a dog named Ralph.He was a gentle rottie and I still miss him like madWe have two female dogs and it is much more difficult to name them than males as we would have gone for names like Rodney or Dave.Sue.

We have a Chinese Shar Pei called Dumpling . I've insursed her against both accident and illness for up to $15,000 with a $500 XS for each incident and it only cost us $180 for the year which I didn't think was to bad given the reputation Shar Pei's have.

We have 2 dogs, a border collie x and a black lab/springer spaniel x. We paid nearly £5k to ship the pair of them over when we eimgrated 4 years ago. They were 8 and 9 years old at the time. There's now way we would have left them behind, we decided to get them, we decided to move, it was our responsibility to pay for them to join us and remain part of our family. Both dogs and always had pet insurance in the UK but when we arrived here we could not find anyone to take them on as a new policy because they were both too old.

A few months ago Meg the back lab was extremely ill with pancreatitis and we so nearly lost her. Thankfully my sister, who is a vet nurse, took her to work with her and she was treated. Due to my sister then be allowed access to iv fluids, bandages, needles, a cage etc, we were able to have Meg home and give her 24 hour care ourselves thus doing away with hospital costs. With my sister's staff discount it only cost around $450 to get her all well again. I can't thank my sister enough for the long hours she put in after work treating our girl.

Anyway, I also know of someone who found a lump on their dog who otherwise had no symptoms whatsoever. He was a happy 6 year old westie terrier, who was eating well, running around, showed no signs of pain or anything. The vet wanted to charge $120 for the lump to be tested so they decided "Rather than pay $120 to find out it's cancer and then have to pay for loads more treatment that we probably can't afford we're having him put down."

It could well have not been cancer! The poor dog was put to sleep imo, for no reason whatsoever. 2 months later I find out that they are looking at paying $350 for a puppy from the pet shop! :curse::curse:

I love rotties. My folks had a rottweiler/german shepard cross named Themba (pronounced without the "h") - a Zulu word meaning trust, hope and faith. He really lived up to his name . My Ralph was a ridgeback, also an amazingly gentle dog.

How do you find her in that basketLove the name and also her colour.Sue.

One of my daughters friends in England had a ridgeback he was a gentle giantMy Ralph had ingrowing eyelashes and we just though he had a bit of a sore eye when we took him to the vets we were told he would have been in a lot of pain.But you would not have known he was so good naturedAfter his op my husband had to wrestle him to the ground twice a day to put eye drops inSue.

I have never heard of anyone that actually has done what PP started the thread about before. This is probably the first time I have heard a real story before and I feel absolutely sick by that. $120 OMG

They should not be getting another puppy.

We had two Burmese cats (Cadbury and Porsche) and they cost us nothing apart from annual jabs until they got to 16, then Porsche developed kidney disease but food and tablets sorted her out for a couple of years. Then after we lost her Cads got a liver infection which ended up costing us well over a grand (UK grand...) as he had to spend 3 nights in the hospital and then follow up. Then after that he was never really right again as I think the strong anti-biotics destroyed all his good intestine flora and we had a few problems!

Anyway, he was then on tablets and food for the kidney disease which had kicked in by then and constant trips trying to sort out his tummy. I was spending 64 pounds a month on him.

We were about to come out here for a holiday when he started leaping around the lounge like a young kitten again (he was 21) so I got a bit worried and the vet thought it was thyroid but 150 pounds later on a special blood test revealed there was nothing wrong with him!

In his last 3 and 3/4 years I hate to think how much we spent on him, we were well known down the vets and all the vet nurses loved him but I couldn't have just had him put down! He was my baby (I haven't got kids) so there was no question of not doing everything we could to help him but fortunately we could afford it. Everyone kept saying to me, isn't it about time you know...he is over 21 and getting thin but I kept saying as long as he purs and is okay we'll carry on, then one day he got really weak and it was time for him to go and his eyes told me (OMG I'm crying now!!).

Anyway, we also put off our move because I thought at 18 when the visa came through he wouldn't be able to do the journey so we waited as there was no way I could have had him rehomed or put to sleep. We had actually got the move date booked before he passed away but only on the advice of the vet who said he only had a few months to go because he was loosing so much weight.

It is sad when people genuinely cannot afford the vets fees but there are charities to help, probably not here but certainly in the UK. The problem is also that vets have been putting up their fees knowing that pet insurance normally pays for it, problem is you still pay for it as then your premiums go up - so it is a vicious circle! We never had them insured as insurance wasn't available until they were about 8 and then that was the cut off point!

I certainly wouldn't get a pet again without getting the insurance. We want to get another furry friend but giving it serious thought to it and not just rushing out which would be soooooo easy as I really, really miss having one but a pet isn't just for a few years these days having had Cads live to 21 3/4, it's a lot of years of looking after and caring!

I can never understand when people dump pets rather than just taking them to the pound? My friend has a little white poodlely thingy which she thinks is about 3 years old and apparently students get these little dogs and then just dump them when they go back overseas! What.....why can't they just take it to the pound instead of leaving the poor thing to fend for itself on the streets.

And these weren't an Aussie couple either but Scots.