how a free cat cost me $500

I think it's safe to say, I have always had a cat if not more in my life. We were always adopting cats, getting kittens from the new batch at Grandma's farm, or start out fostering a few and end in adopting those ones too. Right now, I'm in a house with four, 2 kittens and 2 grumpy old cats.

It started with getting my kitten Sylus for Christmas. A girl from work surprised me with him and of course it was love at first sight. As it is most of the time when you see a 3 month old kitten in front of you. About a month later we adopted Pan from the Humane Society and we were back up to a total of 4 felines in the house.

What I do want to talk about today is how cute little FREE Sylus ended up costing me $500. Some people may not realize just how expensive it can be to have pets, especially when you start out with a kitten. When I got Sylus, he came straight from the farm and he never had anything done with him. No vaccines, no surgeries, no nothin'. So we were starting from scratch.
 

Sylus' first bill came from Petco, where I had all his vaccines done with the walk in vet clinic. I decided to do Petco because it was cheaper then going to the actual vet clinic and paying for office visits every time I walked in. The vaccine shots were also cheaper going through Petco. The vets that were there were also extremely nice and always happy to see Sylus. So Sylus got his first 8 week kitten package that included his first set of distempers and his dewormer. This came to a total of $41.

A few weeks down the road I made an appointment at our local vet clinic for his pre-surgery examination. This was mandatory at our clinic for new kittens who have never been there before. Personally I thought it was a bunch of b.s. because it took the doc 2 minutes to check Sylus' butt and heart rate to make sure he was healthy. I could've told him that. This visit was another $40.


Yet another few weeks later, Sylus had his next appointment at Petco. This time he got another set of distempers and dewormers and also the Feline Leukemia test and vaccine. The feline leukemia vaccine isn't mandatory, I chose to get it for him because our last couple of cats died from it. I figured it was the safest bet. This visit cost $98.

Now the time came for Sylus to finally lose his manhood. This was going to be his first overnight stay and he did wonderful. The vets had him out in the office in the morning when I picked him up and he was running around playing with the other cats. During this visit, Sylus got neutered and front claws declawed. Some people may be against the declawing, but Sylus will never be an outside cat so he doesn't need them for protection. Also I was starting to look like a suicide watch victim with all the cuts on my wrists. This visit cost the most at $170.

Sylus' last appointment was to Petco for his last round of shots. Here he got another the last dose of the distempers, dewormers, Feline Leukemia, and also the rabies vaccine which was also another optional one. This visit cost $63.

We were finally done and little Sylus was 100% healthy.  

After all these visits his grand total was $412.

Now, this was just the cost for his vet visits. I said (in the title) that he costs $500, that's because you have to include the cost for food, litter, and toys (because every pet needs toys). I also still live with my mother who buys the food and litter. We fee 4 cats who go through a 20lb bag @ $25 in a few months. If I get the kitties toys, it's usually the 99 cent one that are super shiny and crinkle, because those are their favorites. But really, cat's will play with anything, you don't need to buy fancy toys for them.

I love all my cats and I will probably always have a cat in my life. I'm so thankful to have Sylus, even though he's an asshole sometimes. And that $412 I spent to make sure he was healthy was the best $412 I ever spent.

If your thinking of getting a cat or even a puppy, make sure your ready to hand over a hefty sum of cash. Adopting will also be cheaper. We got Pan for about $200 adopting from the Humane Society and that included everything Sylus had done through the vet and Petco.

I hope this was helpful to those new pet owners and people thinking about getting new pets. Good luck and remember to love your little guy or gal with everything you got!