$100 + $600/year

First, an Important Message

Regardless of the type of pet you want, you should always go to your local animal shelter first. They always have a nice selection of dogs, cats, and often other fun animals like rabbits and gerbils. The price will be very fair, they will provide instructions on proper care, and they can usually inform you of the animal’s temperament. As an added bonus, most shelters will spay or neuter the animal and administer many of its required shots for free.

If you have your heart set on a particular breed or color and are thinking about paying a lot of money to get what you want from a breeder, please reconsider. Mixed-breed animals are just as loveable as their pedigreed counterparts, and often exhibit superior temperaments and fewer physical ailments as the result of less in-breeding. Most every reasonable type of pet will turn up at a shelter or rescue center eventually, and there are always more animals needing good homes than there are available homes to take them in.

As Bob Barker used to sign off, “Help control the pet population; have your pets spayed or neutered.”

And now on to our feature article.

Reasonable Pet: Cat

A cat is a reasonable pet. Cats will happily live alone with you, or with other cats. They bathe themselves and are relatively clean, though some humans have allergies to cats, and some breeds shed significantly more than others. You’ll have to decide whether to keep your cat exclusively indoors, or whether to let it go outside (which might require a cat door).

Dog lovers will admit that dogs require more space and attention than is available in the average urban lifestyle. Dogs like parks! and frisbee! and running! playing fetch! chasing cars and cats and kids! With a dog, you need to be prepared for outdoor exercise every single day, rain and sleet and shine, for at least 10 years. Cats sleep most of the time and will exhaust themselves chasing after a laser pointer ($5).

Adopting a pet comes with certain responsibilities, some regular, some highly irregular, that will persist for the rest of its life (the average life expectancy of a cat is between 10 and 20 years). Be sure you can handle pet ownership financially, emotionally, and physically: it will be at various times tedious, expensive, smelly, and at the very end it will hurt an awful lot.

Reasonable Cat Supplies

For one cat, you’ll need a litterbox ($3), a litter scoop ($2), a scratching pad ($5), a pet carrier ($25), and two bowls for water and food. Ongoing cat food and litter will cost about $40/month. Don’t forget to budget for annual veterinary visits, about $100/year.

Scratching pad ($5)

While a scratching post (made of something other than carpet) is nice, this scratching pad does just fine. Most cats love to dig into its corrugated cardboard texture automatically, but catnip can be sprinkled on it to encourage the more reticent feline. Plan to replace it every year or so, and get a couple so that you can place them strategically to discourage unwanted scratching.

Pet Carrier: Coleman ($25)

Suitable for one cat or two, or one small dog (holds 25lbs), this carrier can be used for trips to the vet or a friend’s house, and in its converted bed state to provide a safe, soft spot for your pet. Practical, functional, sturdy, relatively good-looking, and simple to use for under $25.

Cat Food: Iams

Iams is not the cheapest cat food. However, lower priced cat foods contain more fillers which can lead to urinary problems, in male cats especially. And since more food is actually absorbed and used by the animal, significantly less waste is produced, which in turn means less work cleaning out the litterbox, and less litter used overall. Also keep in mind that a regular sized adult cat should only be fed 1/3 cup of food a day to stay agile and fit–this bag of food should last quite a while.

Cat Litter: World’s Best Cat Litter

Any litter will work, but the World’s Best Cat Litter lives up to its name. In their words:

It’s the only all-natural, organic cat litter on the market that is made from whole-kernel corn which offers a unique microporous structure. The huge surface area created by this structure easily traps and absorbs ammonia and urine odors naturally, so there’s no need for cover-up perfumes.

Believe it. It is also clumping, flushable, and unbelievably effective in preventing the dreaded cat box aroma from ever being a part of your house. We have tried a whole host of different cat litter varieties, but they all lacked something–too smelly (either by virtue of intrinsic chemical perfume or cat pee), too quickly used up, too much of a pain to put in a baggie and throw out, etc. This is the only one that really does what it says. The large 34lb bag will last a long time because it never needs to be fully replaced–just flush the clumped portions and the litter-coated poop away and replenish with a scoop or two weekly.

Cat Toy: Da Bird ($5)

This ultrareasonable cat toy is simple–a couple of feathers on a string connected to a plastic rod–yet magically appealing. You swing it around, then revel in your cat’s athleticism as it jumps several feet in the air, repeatedly, to try and catch it. On an aesthetic level, Da Bird is also pleasing to the human eye and ear–it truly resembles a bird beating its wings furiously in the sky. Imitations of this product exist but are sorely disappointing. The only downfall to this great toy is that it cannot be left unsupervised–cats will almost immediately destroy the feathers by chewing through them. Inevitably, this happens over time anyhow, so get a replacement 3-pack of “da birds” ($10) and store in a cat-safe place.

Beth :: Aug.19.2007 :: Pet :: 1 Comment »

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