Cats Can't Complain

We've had Pippin for about two months now. He's on his second bag of food and third container of litter. We have 7 mice, 6 jingly balls, 2 wands, and one FroliCat.

Here's the run down on how much he's cost so far:

Fortunately for us, Pippin doesn't have a sensitive stomach and will eat just about anything, so I'm able to buy any brand of cat food depending on what's on sale (provided it meets my health requirements). We also go the extra mile to NOT feed him people food, so he likes his food all the more. There are always coupons for the brand of litter we use. Between coupons and sales, I've probably spent less than $15 on cat food, and litter is about $6 and lasts for 3 weeks. And we buy toys from the dollar store - 3 mice for $1, 2 jingly balls for $1, bam. Lots of toys.

Cat for 2 months (excluding pet deposit and our negligible start-up costs): $5 on toys + $15 on cat food (and there's still over 10lbs left for the month to come) +$18 on litter = $19/month.


But, the real point of this post is refrigerator magnets. Not the chip clip kind, or the cutesy best-friend's-bridal-shower memorabilia, but those cheesy magnetic letters you buy for your nephew, Little One, so he can learn his alphabet.

Pippin discovered these such letters the other day. He was sliding them around on the fridge, then, when he managed to get one off, would bat it around on the floor, pick it up and carry it in his mouth, play with it in the living room, and it would ultimately end up under the couch, the fridge or the stove. The process would then repeat. At a certain point, Pippin lost all his marbles magnets, and B had to [attempt to] fish them out. Pippin helped.

All of this to say that I've realized that pets are only expensive if you make them that way.  Pippin probably doesn't even need dollar store cat toys. He seems to like refrigerator magnets better, anyway. In fact, it's harder now to get him to play with those dollar store mice! Side note, I also threw an old contact case, and he chased it around for 20 minutes. It appears that as long as it's a different color than the floor and relatively small, it's good enough for Pippin!

Me, B, and Kitty Makes 3

One day out of the blue at the end of October, I got a message on LinkedIn asking if I was interested in a position. My old job was... okay. Not very uplifting, no company morale, mind games and shiftiness galore. It wasn't the worst. But I didn't like it, and as it was a temp-to-hire position, I decided to get out before it was too late. I'd been unsuccessfully searching for weeks, so anything at this point. I said yes to hearing about the position. And I had a phone interview, and a skype interview, and an in-person interview, and I really liked this company and the people and I wanted it. Those types of things happen to me. Usually no matter how much I search for something, the thing I'm wanting finds me when it's good and ready (I call that "God's timing").

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, B and I were deliberating if we wanted a pet. He hands down wanted a dog, but we both knew they are way more expensive to take care of, and require a lot more time and attention than we are ever able to give. And B knew I've always liked cats. Well, one day, one of our very good friends (also a cat person), texted B [mostly as a joke] asking if we wanted to adopt this cat that was living on their back porch. Well, I didn't take it seriously ("getouttadebtgetouttadebt"). B really did. So we weighed the costs:

 

PROS:

New job = raise

B graduates in December = raise, plus going from part- to full-time hours

Companionship from a furry feline

Frequent amusement = cats run into things a lot

CONS:

Pet deposit
Food, Litter, Vet, Toys, Tags, etc.

We have very specific get-outta-debt goals

Our couches = no scratchy-scratchy. 

Pretty equivalent there - well, minus the debt thing. In my head, I began equating the who-knows-if-it's-coming job offer with a resounding "yes!" for said kitty. In a nutshell: I got a call, we got a cat.  And we named him after our collectively favorite hobbit, Pippin. So far he's lived up to the name: eccentric, exceedingly curious, slightly stupid, thirsty for adventure, and young at heart. We have a 70/30 love/hate relationship so far. But that's a passing grade at least.