Your Money: Pets

More bark with less bite

Hello Kitty?

Hello Doggy?

If youre thinking of bringing a pet into your life and havent had one for a while, get ready for sticker shock. The cost of getting a pure-bred puppy can be more than $2,000 (although its still pretty cheap to get a rescue animal from a shelter) and the cost of the average vet visit has climbed more than 80% in the last 10 years.

Furthermore, medical procedures once not even considered for pets can put vet bills into the thousands.

But there are ways to economize, from the birth to the death of a pet. There is even a puppy "lemon law" not that you would take a puppy back after a while like a faulty Accord that could help pay vet bills under certain conditions.

And there are legal ways to provide for your canine/feline companion if you pass on before them.

The key is to approach having a pet like any consumer matter, while keeping in mind that unlike a pair of shoes, you could be dealing with your best buddy in the world.

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April 13, 2008

More bark for your buck

Veterinarian Gregory Hammer laughed as he recalled the average price his clients paid for an office visit in 1973, when he started out in rural Kansas. ¶ "It was $6," said Hammer, now president of the American Veterinary Medical Assn. ¶ Good luck getting so much as a torn nail clipped for that these days. ¶ Americans spent more than $10 billion on veterinary care last year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Assn. ¶ A single visit to a vet cost an average of $135 for a dog owner as of 2006, the last time the veterinary group took a survey of those costs. That's up 83% from 10 years earlier. And the price is probably a good bit higher in Southern California, where vet fees are steeper than in most of the country. ¶ Inflation played a major role -- the costs of office space, staff salaries, equipment and supplies have all shot up.

February 29, 2008

Diamond dogs living it up

Some of us toss Fido some scraps off the dinner plate and call it a night. But for those channeling Leona Helmsley, the hotel magnate who left $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble, there's no shortage of over-the-top products to pamper a pet. At Three Dog Bakery in Santa Monica, owners Rocky and Hannah Keever are experts. Customers routinely ask to see the priciest pet paraphernalia, without even looking around the store. For the pooch who has nearly everything: