August 11, 2014
Hattip to Kelly for suggesting the code name, it gave me a chuckle over a rough time.
We recently took Sibling’s dog (we’ll call him #2 for now) home with us.
The most stressful part, the extrication, was almost as stressful as I had anticipated, though I’m grateful it didn’t have to turn into a dognapping. My dad wasn’t terribly helpful, and in fact I’d asked PiC to hang back with him since Sibling is historically belligerent when it comes to anyone else asking him to do anything. That, as it turns out, was for the best. The conversation was difficult, meandering in and out of his delusions – as if I needed further confirmation that he wasn’t mentally stable – but I was able to state pretty clearly the terms of the extrication: this was all to help #2 as best we could and we didn’t know how long it’d take. He was compliant which suggests that he only sort of listened but I had reiterated the very few talking points multiple times, and stated them again in front of my dad so that he’d be aware of what we agreed to, once Sibling agreed to let him leave with us.
I’d secured appointments for #2 two weeks in advance, adding to an already jam packed week: a slew of appointments for me and PiC together, me solo, and guests in town to boot.
So of course, the best laid plans …
Originally, we were slated for:
Pre-surgical Bloodwork: $80
Rabies vaccine: $15
Distemper/parvo vaccine: $15
Neuter: $150
Microchip: $15
Nail Trim: $5
Then we were going to address the bigger things.
After an initial exam, we were advised to deal with the bigger problems first instead of looking at the routine stuff. We visited the vet and $400 later, we came home with a slew of medications to alleviate #2’s pain and discomfort and I’ve been on the dogs’ schedules ever since.
The biggest adjustments:
Learning #2’s signals. He had an accident in the house because he’d asked me to take him out but I was so sleepy I didn’t understand what that particular tail wag meant. This is further complicated by the side effects of the medications he’s on, they increase his thirst and need to urinate. He’s doing his best to signal properly and we’re doing our best to take him out a lot more frequently to help his transition from being an outdoor to indoor dog.
Sharing time and space with Doggle. We now have two large dogs, who both want to be petted at the same time if you’re petting one, or walked together (even though they walk at totally different paces and don’t match strides at ALL), or fed together. They don’t fight, thank goodness, and #2 is great at BEING at Number 2, always deferring to Doggle, but you’re still now tripping over two dogs who want to be Right There. Doggle’s also not terribly sure about this interloper so he shoulder bumps #2 out of the way a lot. Again, no fighting, though.
Energy. Five. Walks. A Day. Two. Baths. A Week. *falls over*
I think we’re heading toward $600 so far, and we haven’t even gotten truly started on the serious veterinary stuff yet as it looks like his allergies may be the least of it. :/
Still, given how badly this could have gone, we’re mildly optimistic so far.
July 14, 2014
I’ve talked about Sibling’s dog before; I have hated leaving him there because I know he deserves better care and maintenance but couldn’t summon the strength to deal with:
1. the removal from one home,
2. installation into our home where we have breed restrictions,
3. while fighting an uphill battle with my Sibling over the removal,
4. acclimating New Dog into a small, yardless, abode.
That’s before you even consider all that he needs, aka, the reason we’d be taking him away in the first place.
Basic supplies: bed, leash, collar, food and water bowls, adequate food.
He’s either malnourished or underfed or both because he’s lost way too much weight.
Estimated cost: $300 to start, $45/month ongoing.
Medical supplies: he needs to be neutered, he’s got something going on with his skin that could be anything from a food allergy to … well, any number of things. But he’s breaking out and his poor enormous-dog paws are swollen and red and tender to the touch. The only thing he has got going for him is that his pearly whites are truly pearly white.
Estimated cost: $250 to start if I can book the animal shelter for the neutering, rabies vaccine, microchip, pre-surgery bloodwork if required due to age.
Then … $$$ for treating the skin issues if it’s not just food allergies or environmental causes.
Training: he’s been off-leash so long, he has to learn how to walk politely, on a lead, again.
Estimated cost: Time. Energy. Patience. Doggle’s patience.
Boarding: His rescue will happen before we have unchangeable plans to travel so we need to find a place that’ll board him for a reasonable amount. Brian suggested DogVacay.com which seemed really promising but it turns out most of them discriminate against certain breeds (and from at least one inquiry, based entirely on one bad incident which is preposterous considering the only bad encounters we’ve ever had at dog parks were with Golden Retrievers trying to kill Doggle, while none of the “aggressive” breeds were anything but lovely. This isn’t an isolated experience either, other dog owning friends have had the same experience, but you don’t hear us saying we can’t trust Goldens.)
***
Step One is still going to be horrible. I have to extract him safely and without triggering the Sibling in some way. I can stand him off on my own, I think, but what happens when we leave? What happens when he gets upset at how long the dog’s been gone? Does he try to come hunting us down and then I have a problem with an out of control sibling raging on our front step? Probably unlikely but not out of the question and what do I do then? Call the police and have him hauled off?
But I also can’t keep letting the possibility of his outrage or upset delay us any longer – the dog needs help and it’s clear to anyone else who looks at him.
We’re planning to make it happen this summer. We’re already going to be extremely busy and have our hands full but we’re doing our best to plan ahead to make it go as smoothly as possible. Do wish us luck – we’ll need it!
July 8, 2014
Doggle gets a very generous annual allowance in our budget, something of a reminder-to-self that it’s an expensive prospect having pets [just ask Funny About Money about her Ruby!]. At this point, I suppose you really could indeed put a price on all the hugs and kisses I force on the hapless, long-suffering Doggle.
We actually rarely spend the amount set aside for him, but overspending in other categories [ahem. food. lots of food. travel.] tends to eat into the unspent allowance so the annual spend sort of evens out. This year, however, we literally cannot afford to do that.
Our routine visit to the vet turned into anything but. I opted to do the full senior package: exam, bloodwork, urinalysis, fecal test. I normally would have passed on it but we needed the bloodwork anyway in anticipation of having his teeth cleaned, and we were a bit concerned about whether he had another issue going on. The senior package came with a 15% discount for follow-up labwork, and considering the possible follow-ups we’d need to do, I decided to go with it. $333 later, we found…
He didn’t have a chronic gland problem but instead we found an asymptomatic infection so we’ve been treating that to the tune of $317 for a two week supply of antibiotics. *faint* I immediately compared the clinic pharmacy price to the cost online and found that we weren’t being seriously overcharged, we would have paid very close to that price if I’d ordered from say, 1-800-petmeds.
Two weeks of exhausted Doggle on meds later, our follow-up labwork ($130) showed that he STILL had an infection. On the merest brighter side of the ledger, I insisted that the receptionist follow up with the vet to confirm that the 15% discount should have applied to that charge, so we scraped back a whole $19.50. Much good that’ll do us in the face of a second round of antibiotics ($150) and another lab test after that. At least we’ll save another $19.59 on the third test. *skeptical brow*
When we finally lick this infection, we’ll then fork over nearly $1000 for his dental. He’s in dire need of a really good cleaning, probably never having had one, as his teeth look dodgy, breath smells worse, and I am pretty sure there are broken teeth that need checking. He’s going to love that. And probably will have to have yet another round of antibiotics if the teeth have to come out.
Where are we, that’s about $2000? Well. Of course, that’s not the end of the story – why would it be?
But I think I’ll have to save that for another post. This one just takes the wind out of my sails as it is.
January 8, 2013
10. His fearsome visage still gives some strangers pause but his calm (stoic) personality has won over more than a few dog-phobics. One person who used to run away from him on sight thinks he’s actually pretty cool, now.
9. Since surgery, and Christmas, he’s been super bouncy. As in, his hind end swivels up and gets air time when he’s excited about something. When we’re going for a walk, and when his papa gets home.
8. Dad is still his NUMBER ONE but he’s been slightly more affectionate and attentive to me and I’m loving it. ie: He’ll come to “say hi” to me after one walk a day, and touch noses with me. But I only get 3 seconds to react and touch noses with him.
7. He’s got this hilarious fascination with babies in strollers. Covered strollers pique his curiosity more than a Thanksgiving turkey leg in reach. Literally.
6. He hasn’t any mental connection with his hind end. His tail smacks into walls, he’s perturbed. His tail knocks over things, he jumps like he’s been attacked. His rear *ahem* toots too loudly and he runs away in fear of his own bum! The last is most insulting when you’re sharing an office with him and he leaves you with the gift of Silent and Deadly gas bombs. “What was that? Ew. It’s smelly in here, bye!”
5. One time only: He’s signaled that he really wanted to go out, seriously guys, let’s go. Normally, he just waits til he’s told we’re going out, then he dances in place as we prep for the walk. One day, he went into doggy dance mode, stalked us, danced some more, stalked his dense humans from room to room until he couldn’t take it anymore, then reached out and whacked his da with his paw.
6. One time only: A few weeks after surgery, he was so excited about a walk that he reached down and grabbed his sling. He’s never done that before or since.
5. Social interaction: He has a small collection of toys that he will carefully select from, one at a time, to carry out for the afternoon and show off when it’s his self designated play time. We’re allowed to play catch for about five minutes at most, and then he takes the toy and settles down with it and a “please leave now” air.
4. Strange talents: He can hear me putting on pants from any room in the house.
3. Vocalizing: He used to match PiC snore for snore.
2. Innocence: He nearly bit me (accidentally) once when we were playing and immediately turned it into the biggest ohhh-what’s-over-theerrrree YAWN.
1. He lets me lay on top of him for a full squishy hug.
I wish I could share so many pictures of him but he’d out us in a flapjack second. I’d love to see and share photos of your little and large darlings, though!
So all of this is to say, Doggle is wonderful and in 2012, he cost about $8500. We love you, Doggle. We love you.
October 8, 2012
A belated CONGRATULATIONS to Lazy Man and Mrs. on their new baby arrival!
Last week’s Carnival of Personal Finance: the Fall Traditions Edition was hosted by Tie the Money Knot and this week’s Carnival: The Leaves are Changing Edition was hosted by Walking to Wealth’s Adam Hagerman.
It’s the beginning of October and Kay Bell’s got a list of things to do for the month. Happily, in the chaos of all of Doggle’s health issues, and with the filing deadline of October 15th approaching, of course it seemed October 1st was the right time to sit down and power through. It only took about … 7 hours? Applicable excerpts for me:
Charitable donations other than cash: This year’s Goodwill donations included Mom’s entire wardrobe. I didn’t have it in me to go through that for anything to keep. Even now I can’t think about it. I know what was in there so I could list it for the donation, though, and it was substantial. But Dad wanted to donate everything but a small pile so I let him.
Medical costs: Out of curiosity, I just wanted to know whether I could deduct medical costs. Started to seem worth asking this year, having spent a few thousand or so on them. We would have had to have costs over $11, 500. Ooof. Ok, life doesn’t seem so bad now.
Athena just said good-bye to a lot of her mom’s stuff too. I’ve never been able to deal with actually being surrounded by too many things but it struck me how difficult it was to think about the idea of her things not being there anymore. Because it meant she wasn’t either. She used to rescue things that I planned to purge too, and I think it was to remind her of me. Now I have that double memory infused in that thing, as I let it go.
I grew up going to Chinatown in LA for cultural celebrations every year, shopping in the almost-musty shops several times a year, using the elderly and funeral services for my grandparents. I didn’t live in Chinatown but it was as much part of my extended neighborhood as any of the closely neighboring cities. And the idea of seeing a Walmart in that place that’s both a cultural entity and also a home is disconcerting. I wonder if the residential support for a Walmart comes from just wanting any general store in the area?
This is a super old story and I don’t know how I ran across it, but it was disconcerting anyway. Minnesota’s Public Health program and Team D was apparently how we managed to track down foodborne illness outbreaks so well in the past. I am so glad we shut that down….?
/sarcasm.
Not totally sure that we really needed this pointed out but NYTimes covers the perils of goalsetting. As in, you shouldn’t be setting goals without regard for how you reach them, or to the exclusion of all other things. Well, duh. “Reach this goal no matter what” generally results in bad. I’m certainly OCD enough that even I’ve had to retrain my brain to let in the rest of the world after focusing on Goals 1 and 2 but absolutely nothing else ever. Of course I’m saying this from a point of view of a person whose only goal is to freakin’ survive right now. So… you know. *shrug* Perspective. I got some.
Found this new-to-me blog called Farm to Kitchen to Table that occasionally shares recipes/creations based on a CSA box. I still haven’t convinced myself to get one because they are actually rather pricey, but someday….
Looks like Fabulously Fru-Gal also buys and returns (shoes) online. I do this for anything that has free shipping because I hate going to B&M stores. Energy is too precious.
DOGGLE UPDATE: Doggle’s recovering from his ordeal rather nicely so far, feeling full of himself and trying to go for broke on his limited walks. He’s doing much better than his mama, so I take that as a great sign!
MONEY UPDATE: Taxes were submitted and if I did everything right, we should be getting a rather large refund altogether. I wasn’t ready to screw around with our deductions from last year without having done a tax year as married filing jointly yet. Now that I have a single year under my belt, and waiting to see the IRS process it without hassle and quietly (fingers crossed, salt tossed, whatever), I may make some adjustments to our money.
I’m increasing his retirement contributions, definitely, to make up for my lack of a fund right now. I’m pretty sure we’re over the eligibility for ROTHs now but I’m not 100% certain so when I have some energy, that’s another thing to check. We may be able to increase his contributions to just max him out. I take over a different payment for him to balance the take-home cash availability since we don’t have time to deal with changing banks for the moment. Fair enough for both of us right now.
More plotting later ….
October 2, 2012
So the scar is pretty spectacular. I mean, the surgical site and incision is, anyway, it’s not a scar yet. But that’s starting at the end, or what is currently the “end” of a story that we’re still in the middle of. And I confess to being tempted to show you a photo but I have been accused of being gross for such things before.
Doggle seemed to be middling-fair end of the week but, to my eye, distinctly on the downhill trend, at a rate that I was most certainly not comfortable with.
You have to understand that his rate of decline was most important here because he was on more ameliorating medication than he’d been on during his first episode, significantly more, his baseline symptoms were far worse to begin with yet he was deteriorating more and more rapidly as time went on.
I’ve got some experience in this area. And I’ve got some old, long-time professional contacts in this area, too. So I emailed after the consult with a detailed description of the exam, then added my opinion afterward. That’s when I got the confirmation that my side-eyeing of the situation was indeed accurate.
Things literally got worse overnight. Sunday morning, Doggle had gone from a dog that could ambulate and push me around the night before to a dog that was struggling to stand on his own, struggling to walk more than six paces without his hind end falling and, struggling to keep his hind end from tipping over entirely one side or the other. A few times, he couldn’t and his entire body toppled over, and he was helpless to get back up.
That’s aside from the other obvious signs of neurological deficit, the dragging of the hind paws, the knuckling without correction, the awkward out-turning of one leg or the other as though it were a foreign object not truly attached to his body.
It was disturbing how he went from hours of trying to pace and fighting me to exhaustion Saturday night over being bed rested and crated to giving up from pain and discomfort.
And yet, it wasn’t easy to make the decision on Sunday to commit to surgery – it was a huge decision to put him under anesthesia again, to subject him to a major surgical procedure, to commit him to a serious multi-month recovery and rehabilitation effort.
The money was never an issue for me. I knew it wasn’t going to be debt so I was basically ready with cash in hand. We had already paid for the initial exam and associated costs: ~ $150.
Then the specialist exam and diagnostics (bloodwork, MRI): $2540
Quote: $4200-5000, or $4800-5600
It was a body blow to PiC, who has never dealt with major veterinary procedures and therefore their costs before. I had walked him through what I expected each line item to cost already but hearing it from the specialist, confirming I was right, was still a shock. It took all I had to keep my mouth shut and let him work through the equivalencies: “that’s one of X, that’s five of Z, that’s …”
In the end, that’s my dog and responsibility. That’s our dog. We’re not broke, in financial straits or in danger of being so, so there’s nothing more important to me than his life and health. That’s our dog’s spine and health and PiC would get there too. But he needed time that I didn’t need mainly because I already knew all of the health and the money stuff from my past life.
My difficulty was the pain he would go through and the reality of living with the decision. I’ve done various surgical procedures before with my other pets, though not to this magnitude and I know it doesn’t always go your way. Whether it’s the procedure itself or the recovery, things aren’t always routine no matter how “simple” it might be. I’ve watched other people, many times, make the call and I know, it doesn’t always go your way. So I don’t care how “routine” the procedure is for any medical professional, I know that surgery is a risk.
We talked it through and ultimately, given his condition and the fact that he was still not responding to the medications and if he continued not to respond, we were going to be risking his chances to return to function. Backed by the expertise of a close friend, a veterinary professional with more than a decade of experience who worked with many decades of top flight surgical experience, we chose to operate.
We left a deposit for the low end of the quoted range of the procedure’s cost. That’s a bit more than I preferred to leave but that’s one way to take deposits, 50% of the quote is another standard deposit method.
One of the things that I didn’t like about this clinic was that I had to push them to give me an itemized quote – who gives me a ballpark range on a procedure and thinks that’s sufficient? I want to see an itemized list. The front office staff were remarkably shoddy in many respects, but I think the tech staff were generally good.
Another thing I didn’t like was that it called itself a specialty and 24-hour emergency hospital, but for surgeries that are normally scheduled during normal hours, they charged an emergency surcharge during the weekend. Perhaps this is normal in the Bay Area but that’s certainly not my experience from Southern California. You’re charged for the emergency consultation and then if you need the surgery, you pay for surgery and any related surgical costs, and that’s the end of that. You’re not charged another $600 for nursing staff to be called in because the hospital didn’t staff for emergency services when they claim they offer emergency services.
Perhaps they are minor things but they reflect on the clinic and make me wonder if they are indicative of the quality of care. But we were in a bind and we were running out of time. I had to trust that, knowing in the past, we’d had horrible support staff with good vets before, that could very likely be the case here.
I was very nearly holding my breath the whole time. I most certainly wasn’t ready to deal with talking to people out loud – so I wasn’t taking phone calls from family or friends. Twitter was a lifesaver in that respect. Twitter, text and email.
Two hours later, we got the call and his procedure seemed to have gone well – and he was waking up fine. Hurdles 1 and 2, surgery and anesthesia were passed.
Day 1 post-op: he was eating and able to get up, anxious and wanting to leave. Hurdles 2, 3, passed. But a new one presented: Anxiety level and our ability to keep him quiet. For three months.
We ended up paying just under $5000 for the whole surgical package and came home with a dog in a sling, medication, small refund on the deposit and some hope for his back and legs.
He came home dazed, hurting, and scared.
Day 2 post-op: slept, drugged and dazed. We jumped up every hour or two to check on him when he lifted his head, or shifted a foot. We do not have this co-parenting, taking shifts thing sorted, or in any way down. We are zombies by morning. 5:40 am: I am oozing out of bed to try and give him medication. Forget jumping. Who has the energy for that?
The whole day was 98% keeping him calm and quiet, interspersed with learning how to get him up because he couldn’t figure out how to stand in less than ten minutes without hurting himself, walking in a sling holding up about 40% of his considerable bulk without unbalancing him or throwing out our backs or hurting ourselves, encouraging him to walk when he was too tired, scared or confused to.
He’s got no bladder control thanks to one medication he’ll be on for three more days so we have a ten foot radius of potty pads layered on top of each other, on top of towels on top of blankets.
I’m the medication unit so three times a day I’m making sure he gets dosed; unless he also needs a sedative when he gets so anxious and amped up for whatever reason and is in danger of harming himself.
This week is, as we were warned, going to be rough. I expect that could probably be said about more than just this week, but we’ll see.
After this week, we’ll also need to see about a real rehab plan depending on how well he does.
The price we pay for a dog to have a little fun, hm? 🙂
September 28, 2012
This started as a post about some of the shopping I’d been doing and the expensive things I/we want but couldn’t pull the trigger on. And it sort of still is.
But it’s also about how I’m glad that my habits and instincts are still in the same gears so that this on-and-off heartburn will fade so I can work, plan and worry over the pup in peace.
~~~~~
I’ve been buying a few things these past few months. And there are a few more things we’d like but I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to them since, for some reason, Big Change triggers the Poor Lady Syndrome in my head and I instinctively pull back on spending.
BOUGHT:
The purse – May
It tickled my funny/irony bone that I was so reluctant to share evidence of my handbag purchase, despite knowing that I wouldn’t buy another one for years, despite knowing that it’s been years since my last purchase, etc., because after I admitted to it, WellHeeled and Stacking Pennies shared similar purchases.
Oh, they didn’t spend over-the-top as much as I did. My needs were more restrictive (very lightweight, crossbody as well as handbag, black for professional use, durable for travel) and more time sensitive so I couldn’t shop sales but it’s also possible I started this chain reaction since WH was the first person I showed the bag to. 😉
Since you asked to see it:
The only thing I didn’t like was the logo on top. But it’s lightweight enough and the right size that I can carry it for lots of things, not just professional events, so it’s getting used pretty frequently. I do get the “take better care of your things!” noogies though, which makes me a bit grumpy and want to go back to using a cheap $10 canvas tote. That’s why I used cheap totes so much, so I don’t have to care. If a leather bag can’t take a little use, then why’d I pay so much for it?
The Avengers DVDs ($30) and The West Wing Complete Series ($90) – September
I have never bought DVDs for myself – as much as I enjoy consuming certain kinds of media, it’s rare for me to want to buy and own it. I’ve got to seriously love it to want to have to store it. And I have a decade long love for The West Wing that hasn’t diminished. I’m so happy to have gotten another WW watcher in Katie of Girl with Red Balloon! When it went on super sale on Amazon, despite not being Blu-Ray (we have a regular player and a Blu-Ray player), I got itchy fingers. I could pre-order Avengers and buy West Wing outright. Even if the last season has always been nearly impossible for me to watch.
UPDATE: Got a refund from Amazon last night. The price dropped since I ordered the DVDs so I have received $10.79 back.
After the slightly traumatic medicating last night, and Doggle finally dozed off, we snuggled in front of the Blu-ray player that PiC fixed and enjoyed a few short scenes. Who said you couldn’t buy a bit of bliss?
IN SEARCH OF:
The Roasting Pan
Our $30 roasting pan has served its duty, through dozens of roast chickens, and even our first married roast turkey, but PiC has finally had it up to HERE with cleaning a slowly rusting out rack and pan.
I finally gave him the nod to get rid of the old pan which means I won’t be able to roast anything for a bit, which gives me the shivers in general as that’s about half my cooking! It was fine going on cleaning boycott but his ogling pans at price points $250, $300 and $400 was a whole other story. Out of Sur la Table with you, sir! We were only in there because of clearance sales anyway.
Unless we have grandchildren who will inherit that $300 pan, I’m sure there’s a perfectly good roasting pan to be had for less. (Though I suppose it might be argued that a roasting pan is worth more than a purse. In fact, I would be willing to make that argument now… drat.)
Undergarments
I hate shopping for clothes, and women’s undergarments both annoy and aggravate me. I know that sounds like the same thing but they cause distinctly different feelings of distaste. Nevertheless, I still find myself in need of well constructed undergarments once in a while and the time is coming. The problem with that is they cost a fair bit of money. Even with discounts, the ones that fit aren’t discounted much, there are very limited brands that make good fit and last a while so I can expect it’ll be about $60 per. Never mind, it’ll have to wait.
~~~~~
I knew it was specifically the job change that had me shying away from spending – just like when you’re grieving, my gut says not to make major decisions. My instincts say that during any transition that feeling to spend is just a trigger, not a real need and so firmly sit on that until the dust settles because I probably didn’t really need that stuff anyway. (It helps that I can envision being surrounded by clutter.)
With the exception of my birthday, an unfortunate bit of timing with that, I stuck to that pretty well and I’m awfully glad of it now.
I don’t mean that I regret my birthday, it was a perfectly lovely time and probably the best birthday I have ever had. Just that I never spend money for my birthday and we had to go and spend it up this year, didn’t we? What’s so special about 30 anyway? 🙂 Ah well. It was a good time.
All of which is to say … I’ve made the first calls for quotes and scheduling. Doggle’s exam and diagnostics alone put us in the first quarter of the [brace yourself] ten thousand dollars I am estimating this could possibly cost. Forget heartburn. I may well have a minor ulcer.
Except you know what? This is why I don’t spend on other things we don’t really need. This is why I save on the big stuff, small stuff, and what people would call “nickel and dime”, and the pennies too. Every bit adds up. So while I’m not wealthy, my cushions are there.
So I challenge myself to cash flow this. Because that’s what this PF-blogger dog mama does. Any and every frustrating thing is a challenge to beat.
He’s had a few rounds of meds and those went really well. I’ve got that mojo back. And we’ll see how it goes from here.
