I want to relate this story to all of you, and although it is a story about a cat, the idea behind the story relates to our fuzzies as well. I have a friend who lives in a wonderful house that she purchased last year when she moved to Calgary from Edmonton. One of the first things she and her husband did was to adopt a mangy cat from the local Humane Society named Murphy and a few months later they adopted another cat and eventually added to their family two large dogs. All seemed to be going well, and getting anxious to have things more in order, they put themselves in debt purchasing sod and trees and rocks - a landscapers dream garden was well on its way. One evening one of the cats didn't come home, but that wasn't unusual as he sometimes did that. The next morning, she got a call at work from her husband that Murphy had made his way home but that his leg was broken and he needed to go to the vet right away, and that he would meet her there. She braced herself for the worse, and when she saw Murphy, the miracle of him making his way home became apparent. His leg above the sole of his foot was broken completely in half and was dangling free. How he managed to jump a 6 foot fence to get himself to the back door was an act of true heroism. The vet checked him over and said that the injury could be dealt with in two ways: if the infection that had already set in wasn't too bad, his leg could be pinned and he would be left with a limp; if the infection was bad then the leg would have to be amputated. In either case he would live to see another day. The cost of the surgery would cost about $800 and if they had to amputate then it would add about another $200. My friend was floored and torn; she was already in so much debt she couldn't even make a minimum credit card payment. If she paid for it, she would not be able to eat for the next few months and pay some necessary bills. The decision was made to euthanise him. When I saw her she was a lifeless shell of the person I knew a week before. To her, her life had changed. When she got home after putting Murphy down she looked at all the things she had purchased in the weeks prior to his accident. His life was in her sod and his life was in the rocks and the trees.... if they hadn't purchased those things he would be alive today. Her guilt was tremendous. To her, Murphy's life had been reduced to a measure of available cash and she could not forgive herself. I tell this story because it teaches us a valuable lesson - that we must prepare for emergencies. I am not here to judge her decision, for she is the only one to be accountable to. I read time and time again that our little fuzzies may be going without proper treatments because of the lack of available cash. Someone on this list made the suggestion to pay the vet a little each month in hopes of covering what emergencies that may come up in the future. I'm sorry I don't recall who said it - it was such a good idea that I'd like to take credit for it as my own but can't! I can't stress the importance of planning and giving up a little cash every month to your vet. The reward will come back to you ten fold in the form of your beloved companion allowed to live and play another day. So, ask yourself, what is a life worth to you....... Betty and Her Remaining Blurs O'Fur Missing Tinder [Moderator's note: Betty asked me to hold this for a light day so as to not crowd the FML, but today *is* a light day! There are many stories such as these and if we try hard enough, they all "could be" about a ferret. So, I don't often post ones which are not *directly* about ferrets. Occasional reminders, light days and perhaps particularly poignant ones are the exceptions. I think this meets all three. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 2448]