The cat that was a member of our family for 10 years I picked up at a vet clinic on the military base. I was there working on the network one day and took a walk through the pet area to visit the strays on my way out. He was just a kitten and kept poking his paws through the bars at me so I took him home.

>>Call around to a few vets and explain the situation. You may get different opinions and you may also get a feeling re: how expensive they are. Charges for surgery and other non-routine stuff vary widely around here.
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>>We have about a dozen cats and a couple of dogs - all strays that just show up and decide they live here. We get them all spayed/neutered and make sure they all have their shots. We get quantity discounts from the area vets.
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>>When one gets sick or injured bad enough to need a vet, the vets work with us to try to keep things affordable.
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>>The animals are part of the family - we'll spend a lot to keep them healthy. We will put them down if we can't give them good quality of life though.
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>>What's my point? I guess I'm saying IMHO you take care of your pet like it is family. If it really comes down to your human family or your pet, then the choice is clearly to take care of the humans. If not, take care of the pet.
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>>That's just my bleeding heart animal lover opinion.
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>Yours and mine both. All my cats have been strays too, and now one has kidney failure and one has Diabetes. On the bright side, it's easier now to keep track of where my paycheque goes. I just hope the others stay healthy for a while.
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>>YMMV.
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>>>So my dog of almost 2 years swallowed a toy the other day. It hasn't passed and we are worried that it won't. She's starting to have blood in her movements so we're afraid that it won't pass without surgery. At that point we need to decide how much our dog is worth to us, especially with a baby coming. Has anybody had to go through this? How did you handle it? Am I morally obligated to spend what it takes to get my dog healthy again, even if I could more responsibly spend that money on my child's future? FYI: my dog is more like a friend to me than a pet, so I'm not taking this decision lightly. If it's a question of hundreds of dollars, then it's a no brainer to me. If it's thousands then I will have to put more thought into it.