I know we’ve discussed this in the past, but I’m bringing up the topic again in hopes that y’all will weigh in.
Pet insurance: tell us about your awesome pet insurance! Be specific – if you love (or hate) the pet insurance you have (or have tried), let us know the name of the insurance, please.
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Eyes on the prize.
Archie got it! You go, Uncle Archie.
I love the look on Archie’s face. He’s all “That boy has perfect form. Good job!”
With that tail holding him back, Webster can only do short pops up in the air. But pop he does!
If you look closely, you can see that Stefan is so excited he’s fangin’ it.
Felix can get some really amazing leaps in!
Felix and Webster went home last night, and things are super quiet around here. I think Archie and Stefan are going to miss having them around, especially Stefan. They’re at a good age, where they want to play a lot, and big enough to fight back when Stefan gets too bossy. We closed the back door and let the kittens have the run of the house all day yesterday, and Stefan had a lot of fun with them. He did get overexcited and tried to play with Alice, which never ends well, but a time out for him calmed him down.
(I love that in last year’s post, there’s a video of Stefan playing with little Carlin, who reminds me a LOT of Felix!)
Monday night, I put the kittens in the foster room at bedtime, as usual. I was laying in bed fuming about the neighbors still setting off fireworks at almost midnight (grrrr), when I heard a very loud noise from upstairs. I heard it again, so I looked on the DropCam in the foster room, and saw a cat that was very much NOT a kitten trying to get out. Turned out that when I put the kittens to bed, I didn’t see Archie sleeping in the wall condo. When the fireworks woke him up, he realized he was in the foster room with no escape, and he was NOT happy.
I opened the door to let him out, and he followed me downstairs and was 60 times more affectionate than I’ve ever seen him before. He was rubbing on my legs, he was talking to me, he snuggled up next to me for a few minutes. I guess he was REALLY grateful for being rescued. It was awfully sweet.
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Previously
2015: Well of course the littlest one is going to be the first one on top of the bookcase. OF COURSE.
2014: No entry.
2013: “You gonna share that… pleeeease?”, Khaleesi says, giving Sugarbutt the Eyes of Flirt.
2012: Inspector Stompers not judging you.
2011: Or a stay of… adoptacution?
2010: No entry.
2009: Kinda creepy!
2008: No entry.
2007: It’s tough to be a Toms.
2006: No entry.
2005: Mia.
Many thanks for posing the insurance question, Robyn. I’m eager to learn more.
Perhaps because I’m undercaffeinated, Stefan fangin’ it made me think of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Fakin’ It.” With a tweak or two: “When he leaps, he’s gone / If he leaps, he gets air / The boy does what he wants to do / He knows what he wants I do / And I know he’s fangin’ it…” Speaking of the classics, my older boy sometimes has to hear me ruin T. Rex too, ending with a triumphant “Get it on, fang a gong, get it on!” Lucky he’s a very good natured poppet. Fangs for the memories.
I love Healthy Paws. They’re really chill and easy about submitting and processing claims and the premium has paid for itself a zillion times over with one emergency room visit. It covers allllll the prescriptions my kitty needs for her asthma (even the Zyrtec from the human pharmacy). I have zero complaints.
pet insurance – something we should probably have but don’t….
Poor Archie – locked in the kitten room 🙂
Archie heard that he was rated the least affectionate cat and wants to move up in your rankings.
I used to have a male cat who had thyroid problems and then cancer at the end of his life. Treatment was very expensive, so 3 years after his death I adopted 2 female kittens from a shelter at the age of 8 and 9 weeks. I decided to buy insurance from the very beginning of their lives. My vet had a flyer about Trupanion, so I bought that one. The vet has to sign the application.
My kitties are now 4 years old and I haven’t had to make many claims (only a couple for medication at the beginning), but it gives me peace of mind that I have it in case of serious illness or an accident. Yes, the premiums will add up to a lot of money over the life of a cat (15 to 20 years), but if you don’t have insurance and your cat gets very ill, all of a sudden you have huge vet bills that can seriously dent your finances. This way the expense is spread out over years. They don’t reimburse for routine checkups and immunizations – it’s mainly for illness and accident care. I have it automatically charged to my credit card, so I don’t have to write a monthly check for the premiums.
By the way, changing topics, even though my cats are indoors only, I also had them microchipped in case they ever escape and get lost. That’s another way to have peace of mind.
MICROCHIPPING YOUR CATS IS A MUST MUST MUST! Good for you!!! All of mine are, also. Many shelters have only a 1 – 3 day hold time for cats (dogs usually get 6 days), then the cat can be put up for adoption or euthanized!
With, um, nine cats, pet insurance isn’t feasible. But we do have Care Credit, which enables us to pay over time without interest (as long as payments are made on time and total paid within a certain timeframe). Our vet does offer an in-house plan which we have taken advantage of from time to time.
After my first kitty passed away after 19 months of renal failure at age 12, and the accompanying +10K vet bills. I looked into this insurance. Over the average lifetime of my cats, the premiums would likely match the outlay. Additionally, the claims process seemed burdensome, a money making situation for the insurance co, if you get past the effort vs return ratio. I figured I would spend the money either way: pay me now, pay me later. I decided to put the same amount in a savings account, get the interest (lousy as it is), and hope my kitties don’t develop expensive end of life issues.
Poor Archie 🙂
When Em was still alive I looked into pet insurance. I calculated the price I would pay in premiums vs the amount of money I could hope to recoup if something were to happen. if any of my cats became diabetic (since I knew the costs for that) I would not even begin to recoup my money. Most of the issues I looked into still had me paying a deductible (which for the most part covered the cost of the treatment) and would only cover a percentage of the cost of treatment. I realized I would be far better off if I paid myself for insurance. I don’t but I could have easily set up a savings account and deposited in it each month and then if nothing catastrophic happened, I would have a nice nest egg for the future, and if it did I would have means to pay for it.
now, I last looked into this eight years or so ago.. and there are a lot more options now than there was. With seven cats over five years of age (most are double digits now) it would be prohibitive to get it now. If I were to get a new kitten, I might consider it.. price it out.. see what was covered.. etc.but I am fairly certain I’d come to the same conclusion now that I did then.
now, if I had a dog, that would be a whole different kettle of fish. dogs are much more expensive, have much more frequent occurrences of expensive problems, and the few owners who I saw with insurance and dogs were very happy about it.
I look at pet insurance every now and then, but everything I find has such high premiums plus high deductibles, that it never seems to make financial sense. My employer recently started offering significantly discount rates on pet insurance as part of our benefits package. Sadly……. for cats over 10 years old they only offer “injury” insurance, nothing that covers disease. Bummer.
Insurance. Good topic, Robyn!
I saw my dear Cagney and Lacey through without pet insurance from when they were kittens all through their lives. I had a good paying job and could afford the cost – especially the eldercare (Lacey lived to 15 with medical issues only in her last few months, Cags had radioisotope therapy for her hyperthyroidism at 13 and she lived to almost 22, facing arthritis and semiannual checkups including blood tests. Expensive – but they both were worth it!)
When I adopted 5 year old Precious from a shelter last year, I knew she had had some battles with URIs and that some parts of her life was unaccounted for (stray? feral? abandoned? kittens?. I extended the month-long free insurance that the shelter offered from Pets Best.
It turns out Precious has some strong allergy issues. After paying the deductible, I have been reimbursed by a small amount above the policy cost both years…she is covered for her issue-related visits and meds. The billing is simply and quick. I am not clear what the coverage cost/scope will be as she grows older, but I am happy to have it now.
I will say that the strategy of starting a dedicated savings account is very wise, if you can be true to it and pay into it every month. If the insurance for Precious rises too high, I will consider doing that.
I think it’s hilarious that although Archie likes playing with the kittens, he didn’t want to be shut up in the kitten room with them!
And I know nothing about pet insurance. I looked at it years ago, and it didn’t seem to cover much, but times have probably changed….
We need to enter Felix in the Olympics. Off to Rio!