Pet Appreciation Thread.

[socalwingfan]

We”re living the dream

[metallicat]

Does anyone own a Newfoundlander?

[longsuffering]

Originally Posted by metallicat

Does anyone own a Newfoundlander?

We had to say goodbye to our Newf 'Orson' on December 12. He was 12 years 9 months old which is quite exceptional for a Newf.

I sweeter, gentler dog you will never meet. I still get teary knowing that he won't be there to greet me when I get home.

I'm travelling for the next 24 hours or so but if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them, here or by PM once I'm home.

[metallicat]

What are the thoughts on pet insurance? Worth it? Pros and cons?

[bagofpucks]

We have a rescue dog that is a breed known for some issues, so between his “unknown” past and his breed risk it was $60 a month for decent coverage through various companies. For the life of our dog, we would pay close to $8K for this coverage. Instead, we decided to squirrel away some money each month that we could use for any type of emergency. Of course, two years in and he required major back surgery that was about $6K, so insurance would havr taken the sting out of that!

Essentially, insurance takes some tough decisions out of your hands and acts as a saving mechanism if you do have to use it. Of course, if you don’t use it that money is gone. We’re the type of people that are good at saving, so for us it made more sense to just put the potential premium payments into a seperate savings account. However, I have lots of friends that aren’t savers or would have trouble coming up with a big lump sum payment, so insurance makes sense for them. The big thing I found was it was difficult to compare the insurance company policies apple to apple, so make sure you understand the details of all the policies you look at.

[Amethyst]

I am involved in a lot of dog related things and get asked about insurance a lot. Here is my answer. Basically, it depends. Be honest about your situation and ability to cover things and that will guide you.

Question One: Do you need it? If you can put aside money each month yourself, then you make the decisions about what to cover, not the insurance company. This works IF you can be disciplined about actually saving the money and IF you have enough to cover it if an emergency happens before you have money saved up. You could also get insurance now, while your pup is young and also save money, so that when your puppy is older and insurance goes up, you no longer need it.

Question Two: If you decide to go with insurance, there are two basic ways to go. One is a low monthly payment, but a high deductible. This is good if you only need insurance for a major, expensive issue that may arise. Basically, you pay a little bit each month to insure that if a $10 000 expense arises, you are covered, but if your dog gets something minor like an ear infection, you cover it yourself.

The other option is a high monthly payment with a low deductible. This is good for people whose finances aren't in great shape and any kind of emergency would be a problem. Yes, you pay more each month, but if anything happens, you don't have to worry about it.

The final consideration is which companies are the easiest to deal with, pay out claims quickly, etc. I can't help with that, as I use the savings option. From what I've heard Trupanion pays the vet directly, if that's a consideration.

[Suzles]

We use Trupanion. No complaints at all. Very easy to deal with. We have had WAY more from them than we have ever paid in - and peace of mind too. Our dog (see left) ran up bills over $10,000 in the last few months of her life. I pay for my step son's pets too. One cat had a $5,000 bill last year for emergency surgery and I was surprised that his premium was lowered this year.

[ken0042]

I'm also with Trupanion. My only issue with them is they are very quick to associate something with a past issue. We went with a high deductible but no limit on coverage. Other plans I looked at may have had a lower deductible but ended up having a limit of $5-10K. Basically I don't want to ever have to decide between putting my buddy down, and re-mortgaging the house.

They cover 90%, so on a $10K claim I would still have to pay $1900. The premium on my 7 year old dog is around $40 per month.

[OMG!WTF!]

The peroneal tendon starts as a muscle on the side of your calf. About two thirds of the way down the outside of your calf it turns into tendon. Two tendons actually. They run behind and below your ankle, down the side of your foot where one attaches to your fifth metatarsal and the other continues under your foot to the base of your big toe.

The peroneal tendons on my left side have been seriously damaged and hurt like crazy. They're a stupid feature on an otherwise well planned layout.

Each morning as I'm just getting up my dog jumps into bed for belly rubs. It's not optional. Except for the last five mornings. He jumps up, then plants himself at my injured leg and licks from the beginning of my injured peroneal to the end of the tendon as if he had been reading anatomy books all night. No belly rubs. Just gentle licks covering the exact injured area. Amazing.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by socalwingfan

We”re living the dream

Ha ha ha. As cute at he is I just don't think my OCD would allow me to handle that kind of dog.

[Sylvanfan]

After 10 months of not having any dogs we just brought home a Siberian Husky. She's a really outgoing little one who's made herself right st home already. Will try to get a picture of her up later. Mostly white with light red markings and the blue eyes.

[metallicat]

My dog died last year after contracting an autoimmune disease. She was just four years old. I swore I'd never get another dog.

Here we are a little over a year later. CP, meet Hector. He's a Newfoundlander!

[Johnny199r]

I grew up having a dog. Always thought I was a dog person.

Recently, we got a cat. I really like my cat. So much less effort than a dog and he comes and greets me every day when I get home and he follows me around.

[AC]

Originally Posted by AC

Mojo:

Originally Posted by AC

Mushu:

Joining these 2 is our last addition, Merlin:

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by metallicat

What are the thoughts on pet insurance? Worth it? Pros and cons?

Not, definitely not.

[Fuzz]

AC, You've built yourself a mighty fine 3M line. Good drafting!

[GoinAllTheWay]

Hahaha, Mushu looks awesome Not much of a cat guy but that ones cute.

[AC]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Hahaha, Mushu looks awesome Not much of a cat guy but that ones cute.

Yeah I was strictly a dog guy, whereas my wife is cat crazy.

We compromised and I wound up with 3 cats...

[Buff]

Meet Vader, who is 9 weeks old. He just came home last night:




I always joked since I was a teenager about having Black and Chocolate Labs named Vader and Chewie. We decided to add a dog to the family this summer and my wife happened upon an ad for Black Lab puppies. We decided to go for it. When I asked her if she had any ideas on a name she said "Oh, come on. It's quite obvious!". The kids were all for the name too. So I guess I named our dog nearly 25 years ago.

Now that he's only 9 weeks old it he seems waaaaay too cute be be called Vader, but wait until he's full grown!

[Buff]

Originally Posted by AC

Yeah I was strictly a dog guy, whereas my wife is cat crazy.

We compromised and I wound up with 3 cats...

I was strictly a dog guy, and my wife grew up with both dogs and cats so she was indifferent. She lived on an acreage with her parents until she was done school and we got married. The cat on the acreage had 7 kittens in May, we got married in August and we took two cats home in October.

I'm not sure how, but she convinced me to get a cat without ever hinting at it. When we went to pick the cat we wanted we wound up taking two.

16 years later I finally got my wish. Pic in the post preceding my reply.