Big Big Question

Are your pets cute? How cute? Why?

Well?

Pet animals have a degree of maintenance cost built in that their owners implicitly accept up front: food, shots, routine and incidental medical care.  But now and then a pet gets seriously injured, or seriously ill, and the cost becomes a serious and likely emotionally wrenching question:  how much is too much?

If you have pets, what’s your pet line?   Have you crossed it before?  Approached it?  Had to make the practical decision despite the pain?  Spent the money even if you didn’t have it?  What happened?

And if you don’t have (or haven’t had) pets, is this something you’ve factored into your thinking about a bepetted (or pet-free) future?

Is your pet line a cumulative total (x dollars ever), or a per-incident limit (y dollars per incident, regardless of past history)?

(Humongous sympathy and good thoughts to the close friends who’ve inspired this.)

How much of your parents do you see in yourself? Where are the similarities? What are the biggest contrasts? Has it any of it been intentional — and has any of it been despite your best efforts?

What have you been most surprised by?