Text 42259, 110 rader
Skriven 2006-11-04 15:38:40 av Jeff Smith (1:14/0)
  Kommentar till text 42253 av shannon talley (1:275/311)
Ärende: Whippets
================
Hello shannon.

04 Nov 06 06:28, you wrote to me:

 st> Hi Jeff,

 >> members. What price are family members worth these days? Now I may
 >> not

 st> How about 'health insurance'... :)?


     I think it again all depends on at what level of caring that you
place your pets at. I don't judge people regardless of how much or how
little they may actually care for there animals. How much they care and
to what extent that they go to financialy based on that caring is up to
them. I niether look up or down at them.

 st>  I had a Dalmatian named Pebbles
 st> for nearly 16years.  She passed away just this past Aug, a day after
 st> my birthday.  I had to put her down, and I was so torn up over it.
 st> She had deteriorated past medical advances and I had to carry her
 st> everywhere.  In the last few weeks, her organs just began shutting
 st> down as she lost her sight, her ability to walk, it was horrible.  The
 st> medical bills were very expensive, but I had chosen a number of years
 st> ago to carry health insurance on her.  Although her premiums were
 st> $38.00 (monthly) at the end, we were at the vet weekly with last few
 st> months of her life.  I ultimately got more back from the insurance
 st> company on her than what I had shelled out.

 st> A few years ago I was told a procedure to save her life (prolong) was
 st> going to run me $1200, I was floored.  I was recovering from a
 st> divorce, ect., had no credit cards (had no credit back then), and I
 st> didn't know what I was going to do.  I called the insurance company,
 st> and they negotiated with the Animal hospital for a slightly lower
 st> cost, and they picked up the tab (100%).  The Animal hospital agreed
 st> (for that one time) to suspend payment until the insurance claim check
 st> arrived.  Pebbles was with me another 6 years after that :)

 st> Now I carry health insurance on all of my dogs.  Because they are
 st> Whippets, the cost is less than what I paid for my Dalmatian.  I pay
 st> about $22.00 per month for a superior plan which includes shots,
 st> routine stuff, and prescriptions.  To my detriment, I use an Animal
 st> hospital (with a team of vets / vice a clinic with one) which doesn't
 st> take health insurance directly, but rather -- I photocopy the bill (I
 st> scan it into PDF and print it out), a claim form, then submit it to
 st> the insurance company, who in turn, write checks and mail them to me.
 st> For instance, I recently had a vet visit that cost me $66.00 (total).
 st> I received a check yesterday for $65.00.

 st> What would we pay to save our fuzzy little friends?  I do place a
 st> monetary value on them... There is NO limit to what I would pay to
 st> save my daughter <period> : but there is a limit to what I would spend
 st> to save my canine family members.  But, with insurance, I can negate
 st> that cost :)


     Same here. I would go to any extent nessesary for my daughter. But for
a pet I personally have limits. I would not want a pet to suffer and would
incur the medical costs to make sure that the animal was not in pain. If the
situation was such that the pet was seriously or terminally ill and I was
left with the choice of high medical bills or to put the animal down. I would
be more inclined to end the pets misery. I have been in the situation before
where I sadly and very reluctently took an animal out in the woods while
carrying my 9mm. I fealt bad at having to do it but looked at the action
as a result of my caring for the animal and not wanting it to suffer.


    Course I have no problem with going out and hunting animals either. Now
mind you I don't hunt for the enjoyment of killing animals. In fact I may
often conclude my hunting trip without firing a single shot. I guess I am
more of a "One shot, one kill" kind of person. I also would never shoot and
wound an animal and leave it. I hunt more for food than for the sport of the
kill. But I do enjoy the task of hunting and the harder the animal is to hunt
the better. My goal though is to not let the animal (Especially bear <g>)
know that I am anywhere around and to not let the animal hear or see the shot
that kills them.


 st> If you are interested, there are only a few companies that underwrite
 st> insurance for pets.  I've looked at all of them.  The AKC even has an
 st> underwriter, but they are very expensive (in my opinion).  The
 st> military and local police use VPI, and that's who I went with
 st>  (http://www.petinsurance.com )  You can get a free quote online
 st> without ever submitting any personal information other than your dog
 st> or cat's name, type, age, ect.


    Thanks for te info. I will make not of it for future reference.
Fortunately almost all (With a few exceptions noted above) of the pets
that I have had have been healthy during the time that I had them.


 st> If you have a pet, it's good peace of mind.. :)  Although, I don't
 st> know if anything of the sort exists for our friends in Europe.. I'd be
 st> interested if they have something similar....


     Hopefully someone will speak up and let us know.

 st> Warmest regards,
 st> Shannon

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Jeff

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