We have two cats.

We love them. I mean, come on, look at these faces!

Percy is the friendliest, most curious cat you’ll meet. He will let Scarlett do whatever she pleases. Including but not limited to putting him in a shopping cart to drive around the house.

Oliver is filled with anxiety and no one has ever seen him but us (and of course the vet). People don’t even realize we have a second cat if they come over. The woman who watches the cats while we are on vacation leaves me little tidbits in her report everyday about “Oliver sightings” which are usually that he stuck his head out from the hallway and then ran back into the bedroom.

This week was our yearly trauma. We went to the vet this morning which is always a debacle.

Percy, because he’s a reasonable cat, just got into the carrier with no effort or fuss.

Oliver, on the other hand, was a strategic undertaking that still left me bleeding and wounded. Both of us are now traumatized from the experience. The vet heard a heart murmur which I’m pretty sure was stress enduced. Hell, I might have had a heart murmur at the time. There were also the sad cries in the car. Oliver was more frantic and desperate. Percy was a long, low lament of the inconvenience we were putting him through. It’s a five minute drive, by the way.

That being said, for fuck’s sake, I just spent $612 on a vet appointment, including vaccinations, tests, and heartworm medication.

I think the bit that really annoys me is NOT the fact that it cost me so much money, but that I have almost $500 sitting in an flexible spending account for work that I can’t use for this. I’m probably not going to use it by the end of the year either. Why can’t I use this for ALL medical related bills – pets included? WHY????

Of course, I also buy the fancy Blue Buffalo food which runs about $40 a bag now, so they are not cheap to keep around. There you have it. Pet ownership is a double edged sword. There is infintie cuteness and then some pretty hefty bills. But they are totally worth it.