You probably read that title and thought,”Dang, what did veterans do?” But actually, I’m talking about vets, animal vets. Veterinarians. You know, those places you go with your pet when you’ve got no choice, and you don’t want your cat or dog to stay sick, or worse, pass away. At least, that was my line of thinking when I took my old cat, Dora, to the emergency vet twenty minutes from here.
She wasn’t eating or drinking, and it’d been at least two days. I’d seen this before in a cat I also adopted, and had for about ten years. I knew I had to do something for her, or I’d come home from work to something I didn’t want to come home to.
I only had the pleasure of Dora’s presence for a year, but she meant as much to me as my long-time cat, Sasha, before she too, passed away. Sasha is buried under the flowers out back, and Dora’s ashes are sealed in a wooden box on my dresser.
When I adopted her, I knew she had health issues off-the-bat, and I knew how to take care of her. But a year passed, and her health started to quickly decline. I didn’t want to leave, and come back to find that she’d passed alone, like my previous cat. I still feel bad about that. So, I did what any pet owner would do, and I rushed her to the emergency vets, because I wasn’t going to have that happen again.
It was about 11 in the morning, I think. I put her in her crate, and drove off. The vets didn’t give me any fuss, they took her right into the backroom and began looking her over. A couple of hours passed, they came out and let me know what was going on. She was having heart issues, and they discussed credit options.
I continued to wait.
A total of 11 hours were spent sitting in that little waiting room, wondering what they were doing with my cat. When they finally brought her out, they quoted me about 3000 dollars, and recommended I take her to the animal hospital another 30 minutes away. Wanting to be able to take my cat and get her the help she needed, I loaded up my credit cards and went.
The hospital took her in without issue, they said they’d be able to help her, although she likely needed some kind of heart surgery. They immediately started her on medication, and asked me what I’d be willing to spend. I told them I really couldn’t spend more than 2000 (even though I really couldn’t afford to spend anything, but that’s what I had left on numerous credit cards).
A week went by. I had some calls with the hospital and there were talks about her heart, and her organs beginning to fail. It became apparent pretty quick that there wasn’t going to be a way to bring her home. At least … not alive. So, when the day came, I went back and I spent a couple hours with her in a pet play room, and when they took her away to put her to sleep I still remember the look in her eyes. Like she knew it was time.
I think that ended up costing me around 1700 total, cremation included.
I have her now, here with me, and I want to be clear, I don’t blame my cat for this. And I know maybe there are a lot of people who think it’s ridiculous to place this kind of importance on animals. But my cats, are my cats, and they are living, breathing, and autonomous. They have feelings, even if primitive.
The people I blame are the veterinarians who gouge pet owners when they know there aren’t any other options. Pay them, or take your pet home without care, and watch them perish, possibly even in pain.
Needless to say, I don’t think I’ve even paid off 1000 dollars worth of the debt they hit me with. I still have a long way to go. I’m writing this because I’ve set up a Gofundme, because I need to get out of debt. There are things I want and need to do in my life, that I can’t do, because I’m anchored by this never-ending cycle of theft from every single paycheck I bring home, for something I couldn’t control. Because I gave a shit about my cat.
The page is kind of slapped together, but I just don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this sooner.
But that’s my story, the whole story, and I hope I can make it out of this. Because I also have pretty extreme car payments, direct from Carvana, the, “We’ll give you a 10-year-old car and hit you with payments as if it’s brand new” people. But … that’s a whole other story, completely unrelated to what we’re talking about here, today.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and if anything, I hope you’ll share this around.
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