Animals in Recession
March 9th, 2009
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One Friday night some time ago my wife instinctively felt something was wrong with our cat Maddie because she hadn’t returned at her normal time yet. We started a search and after about 10 minutes or so we found her. She didn’t look too good and we immediately knew something wasn’t right.
My wife took her to the after hours emergency veterinary where she was operated on for approximately 1-2 hours.
We’re not entirely sure what happened but we think she either jumped/fell on a nail, or perhaps fell out of a tree and was subsequently punctured by a branch or something in her belly.
Because it was an after hours emergency the bill was high and she also required follow up assessment and treatment, etc.
While I was at the regular vet I started talking to one of the doctors and asked her what would happen if someone couldn’t afford the bills. There are basically two options. The first option is to ask the SPCA to pay for it, but that unfortunately means you have to relinquish your animal. The second option is to put your animal to sleep.
These are incredibly tough decisions to make (especially in the current economic situation). Nobody wants to give up someone they love, and I can only imagine what kind of impact this must have on somebody.
In the process of raising money we tried to sell several things and told people that we needed the money for Maddie. As a result we received a lot of support and people shared the stories of their animals with us.
As far as us goes the bond between Maddie and us is a lot better. She is way more snuggly around us now, so something good came out of this after all.
Maddie is sitting right next to me as I type this article and is about to swipe the mouse cursor again – Sigh! 
Posted in Pets And Animals
