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Comment by dkersten | Hacker News Reader

Not sure where they got their cost estimate from, but I spend a lot more than $250/year on each of my two cats (and 250 NZD is only ~160 USD). Still, fun article :)

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I recently had to choose between these two options:

  1. Removal of splinter from pet cat's eyeball: $1,650
  2. Removal of cat's eyeball: $1,400

Blew out my pet budget for a long while. I have the photo that the vet ophthalmologist took - they were cool enough to send it to us.

Apologies if it's insensitive, but I'm curious what the financial cost of "putting cat down and acquiring new cat" would be; mere intellectual curiosity.

$50 to get a vet to put a cat down. And roughly the same amount to get a desexed, flea-treated moggy from a shelter.

Oh wow. I’m sorry for you and your cat, that seriously sucks.

Despite adding a month to the mortgage, it was a good news story. Cat full recovered within a day or two, and the joy my kids get from this gosh darn cat makes it worth the expense. (just as long as it doesn't make a habit of getting eyeball splinters - freaking gross).

Very thankful to have the means that enable a spur-of-the-moment $1,650 expense not affecting too much of the future.

I'll have to write the story of this cat one day.

Good to hear that everything worked out ok!

You should account for the externalities of cat ownership, above and beyond them being a space heater: companionship, responsibility, pride, etc.

"pride"

I see what you did there.

Huge variation in cat food costs. Cheapest food can be under $100/year, most expensive can be 10x that.

Well, just to put it in perspective, I've spent more than their budget on vet bills alone over the past few months, nevermind cat food, flea/worm tablets, toys etc. They must have cats that don't need anything but the minimum amount of cheap food, never get sick...

Ya, one of my cats has had nothing wrong with him. The other got into some pills I left on the counter and had $8k in vet fees to treat poisoning, thank god for pet insurance.

can you share the name of the insurance?

trupanion

It's cheaper to just replace the heat source than attempt to fix it starts malfunctioning.

And you can just leave your old equipment by the side of the road and the state will take care of its destruction.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/07/25/n...

Well, yes, but if you had gas heating you might have to spend that on a plumber, instead.

Clearly this is more of a cogeneration situation.

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