In Your Stupidest Money Moves, Money Central details letters from readers who made some dumb money mistakes. One of the topics, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, centered on pets. Here are some comments they received from readers regarding the cost of pets:
"Dagro," at 18, spent $1,100 on a dachshund puppy, "not realizing I had no time for him," while attending school. The expensive pup was fortunately taken in by dagro's vet.
"Alaskagurl," by contrast, got a puppy for free -- initially. She left the little darling in her new Toyota 4Runner "while I got a collar, leash, food etc. Came out -- she had chewed through the seatbelts in the back. Completely! That made her a $960 dollar puppy . . . and still counting. Good thing she is such a great dog -- although I still don't take her on many car rides!"
"HW3" is also still counting the cost of the "free" stray kitten that her husband found.
"The kitten needed shots, de-worming, cold treatment, fixing: $600. Soon after fixing, the dumb animal swallows a coin. Surgery: $400. Reasoning: we already paid $600, might as well add $400 instead of putting her to sleep. . . . Add to this, leather furniture ruined by the pre-existing cat."
You can't, of course, put a price on the value of animal companionship, any more than you can predict how much upholstery it will destroy. But an estimate of how much a new pet is likely to cost you can help you decide whether animal husbandry is right for you.
They then detail the average first-year costs of the most popular pets:
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) offers the following averages, which include food, medical care and various accessories:
- Small bird $195
- Fish $235
- Guinea pig $645
- Cat $715
- Small dog $810
- Rabbit $911
- Medium dog $1,190
- Large dog $1,580
A few thoughts here:
1. I've posted a bunch about the cost of pets. Click the link for details.
2. The basic rule is "the smaller the pet, the cheaper it is." Rabbits seem to be an exception to this rule. Who knew they were so expensive?
3. You can't really get a "cuddly" pet for less than $700. I'm sorry, but birds, fish, and guinea pigs simply don't cut it as cuddly. And only one of them is cute. So if you want to go for "cute and cuddly," be prepared to shell out some bucks.
4. In case you didn't know it, "large dog" is Latin for "college tuition." Do the math. $1,580 at 10% for 18 years is over $72,000.
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