This is NOT my Neighbor! (I hope)

[Tippster]

One cat owner's bill tops $25,000

By Mary Battiata
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — In Maura Hall's suburban kitchen a cat — a stray turned queen of the household — perched on the table. At the counter, Hall drew drops of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine out of a tiny bottle with a hypodermic needle and injected it into a capsule. She added an antibiotic for a fungal infection, the steroid prednisolone, and insulin for diabetes.

Lily, a longhaired, gray Maine coon-type, received her new kidney last year, and the medicine is part of her post-transplant regimen. She takes it every 12 hours and will need it on that precise schedule for the rest of her life.

Lily is a good patient. She swallowed her medicines, licked her paw and, with a look of fastidious forbearance, jumped off the table.

"I'll be doing this for the rest of my life, or hers," Hall said cheerfully. The divorced mother of a teenage daughter, Hall has spent more than $25,000 for kidney-transplant surgery and follow-up care at the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary hospital. The transplant itself cost about $8,000. Complications, weekly blood tests at $200 each, and medicines have driven the cost up from there.

But Hall says she has no regrets.

"It's not for everybody," she said. "But to see this cat now — she's fat, she's happy, she's jumping on top of the couches. To me, it doesn't matter whether it's a human life or an animal life."

Still, "you ask yourself: Is this the right thing? Am I interfering with the natural progression of things?"

The decision can be a lightning rod. Hall received hate mail after news of Lily's transplant appeared in local newspapers. For some Americans, the idea of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a cat when so many humans don't get even basic care is, if not incendiary, at least highly objectionable.

Hall also encounters resentment and guilt from pet owners who had to forgo transplant treatment for financial reasons. "I can understand it," she said.

The question of access is "the driving ethical question in veterinary medicine today," said Arthur Caplan, chairman of Penn's department of medical ethics.

"I can assure you that if your cat or dog is hit by a car in a poor neighborhood, you're going to have the choice of euthanasia or hoping that the animal will come around," he said. "In a rich neighborhood, you're going to get a whole recipe of things you might consider doing: orthopedics, the possibility of dialysis, lots of things that would be similar to what happens with human trauma.

"I think that sometimes the economic forces, on the part of the vet, and family guilt, line up to promote treatments with only a remote possibility of success."

Katherine Karamolengos agrees. Her cat, Leo, lived 3 ½ years after surgery in Penn's feline kidney-transplant program, but much of that time was spent battling complications including diabetes, anemia, and liver cancer. The transplant's original estimated cost, $4,000, ballooned to seven times that.

"Faced with similar circumstances, I wouldn't do it again. Absolutely not," Karamolengos said. "I think the public should be educated and know what they're getting into when they consider high-tech and experimental procedures," she said. "Because everything is very expensive, and you don't get a break."

[mr_gyptian]

speaking of DC. WTF is going on with Marion Barry?

There is a reason why DC residents don't get representation in the Senate.

[PNWbrit]

for a f*****g cat!

If it was a dog I could understand

[meatdrink9]

You think that's bad... I some some poor shlum already bid $140 plus on some old 900s's on ebay, and there's still a couple days to go.

[The AD]

I'm on the lady with the cat's side on this one. I would spend a large amount of money on my pet if I were financially able. I would never be able to live with the guilt of putting my pet down because I was a cheap bastard.

[TheDingleberry]

Fuck Pussy.

[PNWbrit]

Originally posted by meatdrink9
You think that's bad... I some some poor shlum already bid $140 plus on some old 900s's on ebay, and there's still a couple days to go.

Tell him for $120 he can have a pair still mounted on some really fucked up xcreams

[Viva]

Originally posted by Tippster
[B] "But to see this cat now — she's fat,...

Well...that explains the cat's diabetes.

[Tippster]

Originally posted by meatdrink9
You think that's bad... I some some poor shlum already bid $140 plus on some old 900s's on ebay, and there's still a couple days to go.

He had me at: "These Salomon 900S Equipe bindings are ready to rock and roll!"

None of you fuckers was supposed to notice that brainfart. I gots $.50 to go before I'm outta THAT and into Slim's 914's.

Although, with all the love phUnk was giving the 900's, I thought a new pair would be worth the $$.

Mr. G:

Mayor for life, baby. I'm waiting for the sequel to "...bitch set me up..."

[hardrider]

I could of fixed that cat so much cheaper. Honestly, how much gas would I have to use to run a cat over and then back over it again for good measure.

[freshie247]

I think that humans a lot of the time ask themselves the wrong questions,i.e. can I do this vs should I do this .My Mom is always heartbroken when one of her animals get sick.The last dog was almost 17 when it had to be put to sleep.She kept it alive & in my opinion ,in great discomfort for a year after I would of put it to sleep.

[Big E]

Originally posted by mr_gyptian
speaking of DC. WTF is going on with Marion Barry?

There is a reason why DC residents don't get representation in the Senate.

I was riding the Metro yesterday, and the cover story on the City Paper was a lengthy article on the Mayor-For-Life. It was insightful, sad, and hilarious all at once. Recommended reading. Here's the link to the whole article (not sure how long link will last, if it's the wrong article, go to archives, search on "Last Hurrah")

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/cover/cover.html

I'll highlight a bit ...

Saturday, 11:20 a.m.
Barry spends the morning at home before emerging onto the sidewalk in an almond- and brown-colored African-print shirt, slacks, Bollé sunglasses, and a straw hat. He steadies himself on the guard rail with one hand. In the other, he clutches a jacket wrapped in plastic, a cell-phone charger, and a steak knife.

A woman walking up the hill provides the day's first opportunity for retail politics. She tells him she loves him and then looks at the knife sprouting from his unsteady grip. She seems worried about the knife and asks him what he's doing with it.

"I'm gonna get me a grapefruit," Barry says, adding with a phlegm chortle...

And another

Saturday, 11:45 a.m.
The motorcade was supposed to start at 10 a.m., and one car has already dropped out. Mellon Street, outside Barry headquarters, has become a parking lot of cars in various states of preparation. Green lawn signs are shoved in the back of a van. Signs are taped to windshields. Barry stands on the corner, sucking on a red-flavored Freezie. A volunteer yells from across the street, trying to catch his attention. She's found a green plastic piggy bank to match the campaign color scheme. Barry's fly is open.