Hello everybody! Today I thought we'd take a look at the animal kingdom, and a big financial decision that many of us are facing: whether to get a pet!

Almost all of us grew up with a cat or a dog in the house as children. As young adults moving into our very own places, a lot of us are trying to decide whether to get a cat or dog of our very own. The benefit of companionship is obvious, and having caring pets has been proven to relieve stress. Seeing a box of puppies or kittens somewhere may be a cuteness overload for some and be too much to resist for some people. However, an impulse buy of a furry friend is not something that should ever occur.

Animals do have certain rights in this country, and if you're not able to provide adequate living conditions, there can be legal consequences. Make sure that you've got both the time and money available to provide care for an animal before just grabbing one out of a box and taking it home with you. Peteducation.com has handy tables illustrating the high-end and low-end costs of owning a cat or dog over the span of 14 years. Here is the one for cats, and here is the one for dogs. The listed costs of owning a cat for 14 years span from $4,500 - $18,000 while a dog's range is from $4,500 - $39,000. This has a lot to do with large differences in breeds of dogs, and various medical problems that some species of dogs have.

Some of the costs associated with dogs that a lot of people neglect are chew bones, training, various medical bills, boarding for when you're on a trip, and in the case of larger dogs, people sometimes have to have fences built to contain them!

Cats have a lot of the same costs as dogs, but kitty litter is the only big difference. Both animals need flea control, vaccines, toys, and of course food.

So please remember that the decision to be responsible for an animal's life is a very serious one, and don't just grab up kittens and puppies on a whim!

-Josh "Spay or neuter your pets!" Sutherland

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