What's the value of a cat's life?
We lost our cat, Pig, last year in January. She was 13 years old, very sick, and had had a good life. It was still an incredibly difficult decision to let her go.
Two weeks later, Simon and Rabies came into our lives. For an adoption fee of, I think, $250, we got two four-month-old kittens, brothers, and a dose of fun into our family. They'll be two years old in August and they still tear around the house like kittens sometimes.
Unfortunately, that tearing around the house sometimes extends into jumping onto the plant shelf in our entryway. A plant shelf that is 9 feet off the ground (I measured). They can reach it by jumping through our upper railing and across the width of the staircase. I've written about this habit before (6/12/07, but I can't get the link to work).
Allie is home from school today because she has pinkeye. Julia didn't want to go to daycare when her sister was home with me. So all of us heard when Simon jumped across to the plant shelf. And all of us heard when he tried to jump back through the railing, clawed desperately with his back legs, and fell. He's fallen before. Once he fell right onto his side, onto vinyl flooring, and just went Oof. Then he got up and walked away.
Today, he didn't walk away. He limped away, keeping his back left leg completely off the ground. I called the vet and they got us in 1 1/2 hours later. They're going to have to sedate him to get the x-rays they need, but from how "floppy" his foot feels, our vet thinks he may have broken all of the metatarsals in that foot. She hasn't even looked for damage further up his leg yet. If he broke his foot that badly, he would need pins and wiring to position his foot correctly, so surgery would be necessary. The good news is that the surgeon could work on him tomorrow, so we'd just have to continue his pain medication through the night and he could start getting better tomorrow.
The bad news is that it would probably cost $2,000. Two thousand dollars. Allie asked how many Barbies we could buy for that (her standard measurement) and I told her, Allie, you can buy a car for $2000.
It's too early to decide what to do. First, we need to know what's really wrong with his foot and if there's any injury to his leg. I'm thinking this is gonna be about $500 worth of diagnostics. Then we have to decide what to do.
How will we decide what to do? How?
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6 comments:
Deb, I'm really very sorry that simon is hurt. but, Do you know you could buy a couple of airline tickets. take a little vacation. I would love to watch the Girls.
Something for you to think about.
Nan
Buy a car and use it to run over the cat.
That's a tough one. I would be tempted not to spend the $2000 on the cat, but then what are you going to tell the kids.
A tough one.
I'd tell the kids, "Honey, we wouldn't even spend that much on getting you back to health, let alone the cat."
That should provide the proper perspective.
That's a hard one, I know Gregy he has a heart of gold. When Riley was 10 months old he had hip dysplasia, cost about $3000, we didn't have a choice, he was part of the family by then, and had alot of years left. Good Luck..
Ok Mother, like they would be able to enjoy themselves on a vacation.
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