And I got the shock of my life when I, just out of curiosity, decided to see how much I spent on cat costs other than food/litter (i.e., expenses I don't have itemized).
Whoa!
Last year for four cats, I spent $1572 at the vet, $100 at an animal shelter and $35 for microchip registration. For a total of $1707 of which less than $200 was in my budget.
This includes yearly shots and checkups for two (Buddy and Wizard), teeth cleaning for one (Wizard), a checkup under anesthesia (Buddy), medicine for 5 upper respiratory infections (Wizard was issued meds once and didn't need them, but needed a batch later, Spook had to be treated twice and Boo once), two full kitten vaccine series (Spook and Boo), a spaying (Boo), two microchippings (Spook and Boo), and two pre-anesthesia blood work exams (Wizard and Boo) (the checkup under anesthesia didn't have this test performed first or I would have spent an additional $60.).
Ouch! And Wizard's annual checkup is due at the end of this month.