I once spent $600 trying to save an $8.00 parakeet, when I didn’t have two nickels to rub together.
I always said I would never be such a foolish pet owner, but when your animal is sick sometimes the heart takes over the brain’s functions.
Even with our livestock - a business enterprise - I spent more than the animal’s potential value to treat an injured alpaca. But hey, it was our boy Chaching.
We saved the alpaca but could not save the bird. Neither expenditure do I regret.
Tomorrow I go to pick up my Christmas present - a rescue chinchilla. At least at this point in my life, I have a sizable emergency fund for vet care. And a very understanding husband.
A then inlaw got some Central American bird for the spouse as a
present. A really nasty bird, from the stories I heard.
The spouse really didn't want it, and the bird, as I said, didn't make
itself very endearing.
Some months later, their dog died, and they got a new puppy. The
puppy got sick after a few weeks, and they took it to the vet,
who diagnosed it as some viral infection that would pass.
But the virus turned out to be fatal to the bird, who was deader than
a doornail when they got back from the vet.
The bird was not missed.