Pets

Last week my family purchased a puppy from the Maricopa County Animal Control. We were able to walk in, find the puppy we wanted and purchase her within an hour. I was very surprised at how fast we were in and out of there. She is a very cute puppy with a black back and brown and white paws and chest. She has the markings on her face of a Doberman Pinscher, Rottweiler, or German Shepherd. Her paperwork says she's a German Shepherd/Queensland Heeler mix but at 6 weeks old she doesn't have big paws and is barley longer than my size 10 foot. She was spayed at 4 and a half weeks by the pound, which seems very early to me. She also had received her first set of vaccinations. The pound requires you to take the animals you adopt to the vet within 10 days.

Because I am a frugal person I decided to call around to find out pricing at vets. I know that a puppy needs many visits to the vet for check ups every three weeks till they are 4 months old. I don't want to skimp on vet care but do want the best bang for my buck. I pulled up a list from Google of all the Vet clinics within 10 miles. There aren't a whole lot, only about a half a dozen. I created a spreadsheet listing all the vet's, their address, phone number and created columns for Vet Visit, Rabies Vaccine, and 4-1 Vaccine. I called each clinic to see what their prices were as well as checking on the reviews I found online. I was very pleased to find out that the clinic that was the least expensive was less than a mile from my house.

My little puppy has some congestion that started the same day but prior to the vet visit and she has Giardia parasites. Her medication alone was a little over $75. This made her first visit to the vet cost $133. WOW Hopefully we get her all healthy and she is a great family dog for us.

Things to consider: Although rescuing a pooch from the pound seems economical and a wonderful thing saving a doggie, you may be getting a sick pooch. The pound will not likely tell you that the pooch is sick and they may not even know they're sick. Vet care is very expensive and you must consider this when getting a pet for your family. I found that microchips from the pound are only $25 when a vet will charge you substantially more. Also searching online I found you can get medication much cheaper on sites like http://www.discountpetdrugs.com/ but the fall back on this is you're not getting the medication same day as you may need it. However, these types of sites are great for preventative and continuous medications.

If I were to do it again, well this is a hard one. I am certainly upset that a public agency such as the pound is willing to put sick animals into people homes and risk the health of those living in the home. Vet care is very expensive and getting a healthy pet is important to many of us. I researched http://craiglist.org/ to see what puppies were available, what the rehoming fees were and if the breed was compatible with two young children ages 4 and 6. I was unable to find something that would be a fit for our family at the time we were searching for a pup. So, if I were to do it again, I think I might still go to the pound. I think saving an animal from the pound is a wonderful thing to do, you need to consider that all the animals that go in and out of those places are exposed to so many other animals and less than clean and ideal conditions.

Josy, our new addition, will hopefully get over her problems and become a healthy, playful pup.