Boarding Kennel, Cat Ownership Costs

When people think of having a baby or adopting one, one of the first things they do is to sit down and calculate what it might cost and how they can afford it including pet boarding kennel costs. They don’t just think of how cute a baby is and then go for it. When people think of adopting a cat on the other hand, the most serious thinking they probably do is to think of the endless hours of fluffy fun. Perhaps it’s because kitty cats are small. People are fooled into thinking that there can’t be much to the cost of owning a cat.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The cost of owning a cat can sometimes match the cost of owning a dog. Certainly, did walkers expect to be paid $500 a month, while cat walkers … well, there is no such thing. When it comes to healthcare though, cats get just as expensive as dogs and they can cost at least $1000 a year to take care of. And outdoor cats can unfortunately come by far more injuries than indoor cats do. Let’s add all expenses up to see how much it can end up costing you to own a cat.

Let’s start with the very first year. You pay what you pay for the actual purchase (at the ASPCA, your average kitten costs $100 and your grown cat, $75), you spend an additional $100 on the initial medical exam, $200 on pet supplies and then a couple of hundred dollars to spay and neuter your new acquisition. If you get you kitty from a proper authorized shelter, you can save on all of these expenses and you get a cat that is completely ready to use out-of-the-box. They take care of the tags in the microchip implantation, the spaying and neutering, the vaccinations, the deworming, the blood tests and all the rest of it. Figure on one vacation per year and boarding your cat at the kennel for seven days: $140.

How much does a cat eat? Well, unless you buy Garfield, food expenses happen to be quite reasonable with cats. They are small, and they don’t need that much food. Give your cat the proper balance of wet and dry food, and it could run you to $150 a year. Other standard expenses include toys for your cat. Your boarding kennel should provide food as part of the boarding fee.

Cats are little tigers – they are nature’s best hunting design. While that’s a great thing, it can be really stressful for your cat to not have anything around to hunt. And so, you could have to do what it takes to keep kitty entertained. Usually, it doesn’t cost much – a cat can find an old shoe fascinating. But if you want to spoil your cat with some good toys, you can expect it to cost about $30 a year. You may want to sacrifice a new toy for each boarding kennel use.

You can’t toilet train a cat. The best you can do is to get a kitty litter. Often though, cats just stubbornly refuse to be told where to go. If that’s how your cat is, you can expect to pay a great deal for cleaning things up. If you cat does seem to not have anything against kitty litter though, you’re in luck – you’re just out $200 in kitty litter expenses.

And then come your cat’s health expenses. Routine checkups and the like will cost in the region of $200 a year. Emergency care can cost anything up to $6000 a year. Cats routinely have urinary tract infections.

There are all other kinds of other expenses as well.  In all, owning a cat over the life of the cat can cost $15,000.