About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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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.
July 7, 2014
In the fifteen months we’ve been in office, what kind of luck have we had? Ginger?
– Toby Ziegler, The West Wing
I’m feeling a bit Toby today. It’s going to sound mean but I have PiC to thank for this post as we carry on our dance with Murphy.
Let this be a lesson to you: Get ye your first aid kits together!
He showed up at the front door bleeding profusely the other day, and I actually didn’t even notice the blood at first because I was surprised to see him at that time. Then I saw the blood.
Now I’m the klutz in the family, we all know that. I run into walls, fall off things, trip over mothballs. There’s just nothing I can’t fall over, into, or off of; it’s laughable. But since it’s always me, I’d really slacked off on getting together our medical kit because I’ve always been able to cobble together a passable bandage with what we had on hand. In the face of his hurts, though, I had to get myself to the store and stock up on medical supplies post-haste.
Walgeen’s is running a first aid supply sale in-store and at least some things are marked down online so while patching up most of PiC multiple times, we had enough left to for the home and travel kits, all for $55.
$40 of that is FSA eligible, can anyone tell me why bandages are eligible and anti-bacterial stuff is not? They’re both OTC. Weird.
I got a free first aid bag with the purchases so that was convenient since we only had a bag for the car. Filled them both these Buy One Get One 50% off finds:
* Rolls of gauze
* Tearable cloth tape
* Tearable flexible plastic tape
* Regular bandaids for the really minor cuts in all sizes
* Gauze pads – 4″ by 4″ for maximum flexibility if we’re facing big injuries.
* Neosporin – I’m going trade our second Neosporin for the Neosporin for Kids which is a double antibiotic instead of a triple. Apparently we don’t like neomycin anymore for injuries as people are coming up allergic to it.
I also picked up a couple seriously heavy duty bandages for profuse, artery pumping, life threatening injuries for the emergency kit, tossed one of those into the car kits, the other’s for the home EQ kit.
Still Need:
* Bandage scissors for bandage removals/cutting cloth as necessary for both human and canine
* Kid’s scissors from Target when they have their back to school sales for cutting up the gauze, etc.
Still need, but pondering quantities:
* Hibiclens – As it turns out, we are also now being discouraged by medical professionals from using hydrogen peroxide to clean wounds anymore as they find it causes tissue damage. I grew up being bathed in Betadine, I don’t think that’s still in favor either, luckily for us all. @stardotgeek confirmed that she’s discovered an allergy to neomycin recently and suggested the Hibiclens.
* Tylenol/Ibuprofen – I go through this stuff so quickly it seems like the ones in the kit would be forgotten and expire; I don’t like to buy the single dose packets since we have the enormous lifetime supply bottles.
***
The Minor Injuries clinic didn’t seem to do much good, other than supplying us with antibiotics for the infection I worry he’ll get and a handful of bandaging supplies, but I’m glad we went for the medications anyway. It’s a darn good thing very little about trauma/injuries turns my stomach because I’ve been changing his bandages three times a day and his injuries are gnarly.
Take it from me, you’ll want to pick up supplies on sale if you had to go through stacks of gauze pads and rolls everyday.
July 3, 2014
I’ve been seeing tweets about how whiners whining about the Hobby Lobby decision are stupid and then I saw: “you’re paid cash to go buy food, why can’t you also take that cash and pay for your own damn health insurance?”
And I’m even seeing PF bloggers apparently agree that these are equivalent. And it’s driving me a little crazy.
I don’t even know where to start with the ways this whole thing drives me crazy: financially, scientifically, medically, philosophically but I’m just throwing a few of them here so I can get back to work. I’ll grant this could be more polished but seriously, I need to get back to work.
1. Health insurance is vastly, VASTLY, more expensive than food. And plenty of people go without health insurance in order to pay for food. It’s a compromise that simply cannot go in the other direction. So given that you’re only paid X amount per month, one of the first things you’re going to pay for is FOOD. And shelter. And we all know that medical care is so expensive in this country that one or even two medical emergencies can bankrupt you. Food is not the same thing as healthcare.
2. You’re paid cash for your work, yes, but your health insurance is a part of your compensation package for work you do for them.
It is either offered as a competitive advantage over other employers or you’re paid more money because the smaller employers cannot afford to offer it as part of their benefits. And that’s if you’re working at a level or a place where benefits are even offered. But either way, they sure as shootin’ aren’t offering NON employees health insurance, so what the heck is with the the implication that you’re expecting free lunch? So I expect to be able to use my health insurance just like I use my cash: how-the-frak-ever way I choose.
As Greg Rucka said: Health insurance is not “free abortions” or “free contraception” or “government anything.” It is compensation. For work.
By the way, plenty of top companies ALSO tout their actual free lunch (and even dinners) as a benefit of working for them. But you have to ACTUALLY WORK FOR THEM. I should have thought that was obvious.
3. The audacity of any employer, or any layperson who is NOT my health care provider/professional, telling me what I can or cannot use in treating my medical condition because they decided it violates their personal beliefs is beyond the pale. Heck I don’t think the health care provider/professional’s personal beliefs should have any bearing on my medical care.
Where the hell do businesses get off redefining science and medicine for their employees? And why do so many people seem to think birth control is birth control is birth control and is ONLY used for birth control? Here’s a secret: It’s not.
A) One medication does NOT work just the same as any other for every single person. There’s a REASON we have to have alternatives. 20 pain medications prescribed to me do nothing but make me sicker. ONE of them makes me physically better and mentally a cracked up mess. If the 22nd medication worked for me, that’s the fricking one I’m going to use! And if an employer wanted to tell me that, well, they believe that 22nd medication is from the devil and so I should only use the 21st, I’d toast Satan while quaffing my meds and flip them off with the other hand.
That doesn’t even touch on my next point …
B) Cost. COST! I’m SOL on the point of controlling pain, I live in constant pain every day, but if there was an alternative that cost $1K a month and my employer-offered health insurance refused to cover it only because they philosophically disapproved so I should use the other cheaper and religious-belief approved options? Y’all would see Mount Vesuvius all over again.
C) Do you know what else birth control is used for? Just a few reasons it’s been prescribed to just the people I know:
To mitigate the crippling (literally crippling) effects of menstrual cycles. I’ve had more than one friend who had to be on birth control because they had passed out from the pain and the excessive blood loss.
To mitigate the crippling effects of, or even to treat, endometriosis.
To mitigate the side effects of the menstrual cycles in relation to other conditions. I had to stay on it for 3 years because that to allow me to remain mobile and productive because otherwise I’d lose weeks out of the month as it aggravated my fibro.
The day that Magic Elixer Snake Oil Ltd comes out with something that treats all of those conditions, problems, and all the other ones that birth control helps with? We’ll talk. Until then, non medical and science professionals need to take a BIG step back in declaring what exactly medications do or are.
4. This judgement offends my conservative nature to no end. I believe in small government and that the government should stay out of my bedroom, my shed, and get the hell off my lawn. I also believe in the health of the herd and I believe in health care; you want to prevent a huge financial burden on the nation due to aging and chronic preventable illnesses? You want to poor people to stop having so many babies that will need assistance? *points to healthcare* Hi, there’s a really good answer for that. I believe in personal responsibility and I believe there are times that common sense, not politics, is the answer.
And there’s not one ounce of my being that would think that my employer should have the right to hang out in my doctor’s waiting room dictating what science and medicine is or does or is acceptable according to their beliefs.
More specifically, saying that prevention of pregnancy is the same thing as aborting pregnancy doesn’t make it so and saying that any religious beliefs of ANY sort should dictate how I or any of my family or friends or fellow citizens can receive treatment based on the fact that they’re employed by someone holding those beliefs is beyond preposterous. I respect your religion, so you damn well better respect mine.
In short, this decision is poor on so many levels and sets a precedent that doesn’t bear thinking on but now we have to because the “narrow” ruling’s already being broadened from “only four” birth control methods to “for-profit employers who object to all twenty forms of birth control included in the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, not just the four methods at issue in the two cases decided on Monday.”
Lastly, I was very interested to see religious leaders speaking out against this:
Although the owners of these for-profit corporations oppose the contraceptive requirement because of their pro-life religious beliefs, the requirement they oppose will dramatically reduce abortions. Imagine a million fewer unintended pregnancies. Imagine healthier babies, moms and families. Imagine up to 800,000 fewer abortions. No matter your faith or political beliefs, our hunch is that we can all agree that fewer unplanned pregnancies and fewer abortions would be a blessing.
Julia K. Stronks, evangelical Christian and political science professor together with Jeffrey F. Peipert, a Jewish family-planning physician
The New Testament never—not one time—applies the ‘Christian’ label to a business or even a government,” he writes. “The tag is applied only to individuals. If the Bible is your ultimate guide, the only organization one might rightly term ‘Christian’ is a church. And this is only because a church in the New Testament is not a building or a business, but a collection of Christian individuals who have repented, believed on Christ, and are pursuing a life of holiness.
Jonathan Merritt, an evangelical Christian writer and blogger for the Religion News Service
June 30, 2014
Hello, Murphy, we meet again.
There’s just nothing like a few unexpected events to remind you that preparedness in ALL things isn’t a terrible idea.
An almost hilarious Rube Goldbergian chain of events left us near the beginning of a long road trip sitting to the side of whizzing-by traffic, having limped as far as we could on a completely blown out tire. And this is after our rear windshield had just been MacGyvered after being all smashed all to hell. Huge chunks of glass blew back at least 12 feet, so now that I think about it, it’s a minor miracle that no one was hit by it. Tempered glass or not, the force with which those little square chunks were flung would have meant major cuts.
Kind of like how your life might flash before your eyes in a near death experience, it suddenly occurred to me how many things were missing from our travel/car emergency kit.
* Duct tape for broken glass
* Gloves for dealing with any broken or pointy bits
* Something approximating orange cones
* A full med kit in case someone DID get hurt.
And if this had happened late at night, we would desperately have needed:
* A really good flashlight or even a lantern for hands free work
* Flares
* Blankets/pillows while we were waiting for help
We already had food, water, and a package of wet wipes for getting post-car repair grime off, and luckily we weren’t left waiting on the side of the road blocking traffic for too long, but it was definitely a bad situation that could have been much worse. (Though the surprise $1k+ in auto expenses is NOT going to be fun.)
I usually don’t think I need a AAA membership but PiC’s really helped out; we could not have singlehandedly swapped out the tire safely in under 15 minutes without that power car jack and an extra set of hands. PiC didn’t want me out on the road with him so he would have been dealing with it in the heat alone :/
This doesn’t happen often but if it happened with just me and Doggle, we would have had a struggle getting that tire changed out. It might be time to revise my opinion on a AAA membership.
What would you recommend for an emergency car kit?
Donna Freedman just wrote about this a short while back…
June 23, 2014
My short answers:
Credit cards first assuming it’s under 50K and not a long term recurring expense. Pay it off with….
1. Expenses checking account.
2. Savings specifically holding money for the expenses account.
3. Emergency cash fund.
4. Several CDs.
5. Sell off stock portfolio.
6. Retirement savings.
(How short is short??)
7. Sell the property if it’s that bad.
But of course that just triggered a bunch of questions. What are we talking about when we say, short?
If I “overspent” in any given month (wedding expenses, I guess are the only thing that has recently been in this category), it’d be on the credit card. Those are paid in full with cash in my our checking account specifically meant for paying bills. We put our paychecks in there, less our automated savings, so whatever’s in there is “fair game”. Of course, when that goes above a certain amount, I skim right off the top and put it in emergency savings too so that grows a little faster than generally planned. What? I LIKE SAVINGS.
(Shoot, I LOVE savings. Like I love donuts. And I love donuts.)
I still leave a healthy amount in there (up to several thousand) because nothing in the emergency fund comes out for anything short of a medical emergency, job loss or death in the family. At that, while we didn’t do anything extravagant so it wasn’t an unreasonable amount, Mom’s funeral was paid in full with a check the day of the arrangements. And before that, her major dental expenses went on my credit card, and was also paid off in full. So that checking account can bear up against a few strains pretty easily.
If we are talking job loss, though, that’s a different story. That’s ongoing expenses for an undetermined amount of time so I’d be looking at ways to mitigate the lack of income (unemployment income, freelancing, consulting – whatever) at the same time as tapping the emergency fund.
I spent almost a year unemployed. During that time, I worked the network HARD while freelancing and writing; back then the emergency fund wasn’t nearly as healthy but the expenses had also been trimmed back to a fare-thee-well, so the rate of withdrawal wasn’t truly atrocious. Scary, yes, because once I was tapped out, that was me AND my family on the street, but objectively, not that bad.
Our expenses now have grown: two households, two dependents, pets, long distance family to visit, etc. We CAN cut back in some ways but not a whole lot. So the list generally stays the same.
It’s both comforting to know that our savings could probably carry us at least a year based on our expenses not changing and assuming no emergencies (though c’mon, one bad turn tends to breed another), and scary to think it probably couldn’t last 2-3 years. My comfort zone lies in a much higher amount of savings.
:: Over to you! What’s your emergency money plan?
June 19, 2014
It’s a PF truism that we should always value experiences more than stuff. Mostly I agree because I love saving money and hate having too many things. Even now I’m having a bit of an allergic reaction to the excess stuff we have here at home, and can’t wait for a burst of energy that’ll help me organize a closet sorting things out for disposal or donations.
But only mostly. As much as I don’t like clutter – useful things? I LOVE THEM. Things that make my life easier, happier, or more comfortable are alright in my book. I have a terrible memory so while I do enjoy our occasional outings, weekending frequently would just leave me in an addled haze not recalling one special event or another. And PiC is pretty amazing at Things-Maintenance so if we choose something that fits us and our lifestyle, it’ll last us a long while. Things aren’t just disposable in this household.
Here are a few of my favorite things this year ….
These were a gift, and I use them every day. They’re great for: serving or mixing sauces, serving condiments, chopped ingredients like garlic and shallots, a real serving size of my favorite cookies, nuts or crackers and cheese, a dab of post-dinner ice cream …
How I’d never heard of these before, I’ll never know. But these are fabulous. And they have smiley faces underneath, so even better!
They really are soft and squishy which is wonderful for my generally aching hips and knees; the cloth bands are both snug and never pinch or dig into my ankles; they’re actually rather attractive. I never get compliments on my shoes because I typically choose really basic, boring shoes for their functionality. Here we have form AND function!
(6 Buttons, 3 DPI Adjustment Levels and 2000 DPI)
I work a LOT. Most waking hours of the day are spent on the computer. So it’s probably no surprise that my hand comfort is critical.
For years I used a lovely Microsoft mouse that a reader was kind enough to gift me because I couldn’t afford one at the time; that finally pooped out on me. This mouse is big in my hand, but that’s perfect because it allows my hand to relax while resting on it and mousing at the same time. The tiny USB connection is revolutionary after having struggled not to catch the huge-flash drive style connection of the old mouse, and best of all? This mouse works on any surface. I can sit anywhere and use the mouse on a relatively flat surface. Heck, I’ll confess to mousing on my belly when I’m using the laptop on the sofa and don’t feel like finding a pillow at the right height to rest my hand on!
I tentatively love this. Freedom from cable! It hiccups on occasion but that’s probably because we don’t have top notch internet. I don’t love the huge HDMI cable required but the Roku itself is tiny which is great.
:: What things are wonderful and delightful in your life?
NOTE: I have added Amazon affiliate links above if anyone wants to order through them, what pennies that brings in will go to keeping on the blog lights. 🙂
