Critter Care Part 2

Remember when I told you that critter care is the wild card in your budget?  Boy, was Miss MoneyPenny right about that.  Yesterday, I took all my critters, including the cat, to the vet for their annual vaccines.  The vet told me that I should be brushing the kitty's teeth!!!  I told him that brushing Poppy's teeth was like brushing the teeth of the Tasmanian Devil so I was drawing the line with the cat.  He gave everybody their checkups and vaccines.  When I got the bill, they gave me the group rate, saving me $40, making my bill $163.  I was very smug and proud for putting myself through taking everybody to the vet at once.  I really needed a cold beverage after that, so my friend, Miss Maggie May, came by and picked me up and we went to lunch.

I got home about 5:00 and let the girls out.  I noticed right away that somebody had been sick.  When I looked at Suzette, my nine year old schnauzer, I saw that her eyes were swollen shut and she was acting like she had rabies.  Of course, when I called the vet, they were gone for the weekend.  Luckily for me and Suzette, on the way out of town, I noticed that another vet was still in even though they were closed, saving me a trip across the bridge to the emergency vet.  Suzette was having a terrible reaction to the vaccines and probably would not have made it for much longer.  After saving Suzette's life I only had to pay $173.  I would have maxed out my credit cards to save her, since I was in that zone of terror for her life.

Suzette has never reacted to vaccines like this, so there was not much I could have done to avoid the reaction.  What I am going to do is stay with this vet who saved her.  I have been trying to save money on pet care so had been going to the least expensive vet.  This worked pretty well as long as we didn't have a problem, but this vet is just not available after hours.  The vet who saved Suzette is just up the street and someone is always available.  They even call you to make sure everything is okay.  The downside is, this place is expensive, but I sure didn't save anything on vaccines this year, did I?

I'm not putting up a grocery basket this week because the sales are lame.  I bought Special K, blueberries, grape tomatoes, salad mix and bananas at Costco today.  On Monday, I will drop by QFC and pick up some wild, fresh salmon ($8.99/lb), cottage cheese and purple cabbage for the salads.  I'm also going to pick up tuna and pasta (10 for $10) for the food bank.  I try to put a bag together for them a couple of times a month.  These are some pretty tough times that we are living in now and a lot more folks are using the food bank.  Remember - we are all in this together.