The Price of PETulance

Pets can be a wonderful source of comfort and companionship...at the same time, they can be vexing and annoying. Take our "junior" cat, Guy, for example. I call him the junior cat even though he is only about half a year younger than Booger because I adopted him about three years ago, when he was already three, as opposed to Booger, whom I adopted as a kitten.

About two years ago, I had to take Guy to the vet because he had a blockage in his colon, which was not allowing him to pass solids. In other words, he was royally constipated. After the vet 'cleaned him out," I put him on Metamucil for awhile, and he returned to normal. Well, as luck would have it, the same issue arose this week, and again I had to take him to the vet (a new one, here in Florida) for yet another "cleaning." This time, I was told, Guy had a somewhat unusual colon, and I would have to keep him on special food plus the Metamucil for the rest of his life. (I will admit, sheepishly, that I did consider the possibility of putting him down. Thank God my wife, who is no lover of cats, didn't even consider that as an option.)

So Guy is now home, in recovery mode, which consists of the special food plus me having to coerce him into taking drops orally twice a day, just to keep the plumbing working properly. I guess the point of this rambling is...how does one measure the ROI of pets? Can one? Even though Kendra is no fan of the cats, she did take this photo of Guy...I guess the ROI speaks for itself.