The Cost of Cuddles: Exploring the Financial Cost of Being a Pet Parent with Kaytlin Hall

Navigating the financial landscape of pet ownership can be a challenge.  It's not just about the initial cost of adoption or purchase; it's the ongoing expenses, from food and toys to veterinary care and unforeseen medical bills. In this episode we chat about the financial cost of being a pet parent with financial advisor Kaytlin Hall of Gerber Kawasaki and Investment Management. Kaytlin has an MBA in financial planning, a MFP, and is also a lifetime pet parent.   We cover the average costs of pet ownership, how you can include your pet in your financial planning and whether pet insurance is the right choice for you. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Dogs make the best companions for humans. This podcast aims to help make humans better companions for their dogs. Welcome to the Baroo Podcast, a modern lifestyle podcast for dogs and their people. I'm your host, charlotte Bain. I've been caring for other people's dogs for more than 15 years and, while I've learned a lot in my career, I definitely don't know at all, so I've collected an ever-evolving roster of amazing dog people and I learn new things from them all the time. Hi, you guys. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Baroo Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Today I am chatting about the financial cost of being a pet parent, something that I don't think we talk about often enough. I'm sure you factor in food, vet visits, pet sitting or any of the unexpected costs that may come about. People often find themselves quite surprised or even overwhelmed by the costs. So I'm joined by certified financial planner Caitlin Hall of Gerber Kawasaki, wealth and Investment Management and we cover the average cost of pet ownership, how you can include your pet in your financial planning and whether or not you need pet insurance.

Speaker 1: 1:24

All right, you guys, let's jump into the chat. Yeah, well, I so thank you for jumping on, because I feel like this is a topic that we don't talk about enough, and my vision and my goal for this is not to scare people away from owning a pet, because I really feel like the benefits clearly can outweigh some of these costs. But it's serious business. It does cost a pretty penny, and with the rising costs of everything these days I'm seeing just like veterinary bills, pet food, dog walking costs everything is kind of on the rise per usual, and so people really struggle with how to care for their pets, and so I'm wondering if there's any way that we can talk about.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Well, I know there is a way, because that's how I hear about to talk about how we can like prepare ourselves for the cost of pet ownership and so how we can kind of get a jump on that.

Speaker 2: 2:33

Yeah, yeah, because I mean when you get, when you adopt a pet whether it's a doctor you buy or whatever I mean you should be committing for the life of this pet, right, like you want to be prepared going in and you know dogs can live 16 plus years, right, so you just want to kind of be in it for you know that 16 years. I can give you kind of like a little bit of background about, like, me and my pets and sort of our journey with dogs. As a family I've only had rescue dogs, so when you get rescue dogs I think there's another level of just not knowing what you're getting to right, like you don't know the health conditions, you don't know. Growing up I had, you know, the German Shepherd rescue dogs because that's what they had in the 90s in the shelters, and then when I graduated from college, and still today.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:24

And then, once I graduated from college, I was more interested in pit bulls, so that's sort of what I have like a pit bull mix breed. Marla was my first dog after college. He was healthy, everything was great, but he got diagnosed with prostate cancer when he was eight and he only lived, you know, a week or two after his diagnosis. And then we got Roxy in 2018 and she was about a year and a half-ish old. She's still here. She's, you know, downstairs somewhere like baking in the sun. But I think, when you go in with these rescue dogs, you just you don't know what you're gonna get. You could have issues right from the get go, or you could, you know, be great like Marla until the very end.

Speaker 1: 4:05

I don't think that's only with rescue dogs, do you right, because there's a lot of stuff with any dog, you're gonna have to put the some you're gonna have to put work, whether it's, you know, medical or behavior or anything you know there's, they're gonna have needs that they're gonna need to be met in. Those accidents happen, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:23

So the big thing and I know we kind of we can talk about. You know what is like. How much do you save monthly and you know how to prepare for this. But when I talked to clients just about regular financial planning, you know we say you want to have anywhere from about three to six months of your fixed living expenses liquid in the bank, and I would add your dog those expenses too. So you know, when you're thinking cost of food, veterinary care, you want to have that money liquid because what? What we've kind of seen, I think even over.

Speaker 2: 4:56

You know COVID is like a lot of people adopted dogs during COVID because they were home and then, as things change, you know some of those dogs got returned. Or if you know your job changes, you have to relocate, you have to. You know you're take a job cut like. You need to have that money liquid in the bank so you can cover those expenses sort of while you're getting your feet stable again through these big life transitions. So I can give you a few numbers about you know sort of helpful. You know on average it's in 2023. It's about dog ownership is about $376 a month or about $4500 a year. Gen Z spends more, though I was gonna say, unless you're my dog, yeah, this is national numbers.

Speaker 2: 5:39

Right, these are, you know maybe not Southern California numbers, but you know the average person in America spending about $376 a month, gen Z spending $590 a month. So I think it also depends on, like, what sort of care you're getting, what type of food, but this is, you know, sort of average. So if you're thinking maybe somewhere in the $500 a month range, you need to make sure that you have three to six months of that $500. You know, liquid in the bank to sort of cover emergency costs. But things that come up, you know, with income being unpredictable.

Speaker 1: 6:12

Sure.

Speaker 2: 6:13

So that's a big one. And then the other one is, and I can kind of, you know, even go over more details like how much is food, you know how much are toys, and I think some of these things are going to be.

Speaker 1: 6:25

I would love to hear numbers like what, like I mean I know what I spend and I know you know I, he's, you know he's I don't have children, so I know that makes you know human children, so I know that makes a huge difference in what I'm able to do for him, for for many people. But I, you know, I know what I spend, but I'd love to know what the average, like those numbers are you?

Speaker 2: 6:46

know yeah. So dog food on average is about $200 a month. $200 to $1,000, I guess A month, I'm sorry a year. That was the wrong, the wrong one. But you know some people do spend $200 a month.

Speaker 1: 7:00

No, I definitely spent $200 a month.

Speaker 2: 7:01

Yeah, roxy's on a limited diet because she's allergic to everything, so she's probably closer to 200 a month. But no, sorry, that was, that was confusing. 200 to 1,000 a year, and all these numbers will be annual numbers. But dog toys, 100 is national average and you know, mine's probably a little bit higher than my dog Marla was probably, you know, triple that because he was a shredder.

Speaker 1: 7:27

You know like pull all the toys apart.

Speaker 2: 7:29

So he was more of our home goods toys than the fancy toys Leashes, beds, collars, you know, those kind of I don't want to say miscellaneous but still necessary 75 to 250 per year Because you know you're typically not replacing leashes and beds and stuff that often, unless you have a puppy, but that they're a chewer also, yeah. And chewers and diggers and destroyers grooming 50 to $1,000 a year. I don't know how you groom your, if yours are high maintenance groomers or if they're backyard groomers.

Speaker 1: 8:08

I throw my guy, I mean my guy, I, this is, I will say this and that I, for people listening, I wish I had put. I wish I had gotten my dog used to the groomer from the get go when I adopted him. But I've always just kind of washed him myself, because now he's, he's never got acclimated to the groomer, so he doesn't like going to the groomer, so I just do it myself now. So but and you know it's too terrifying for him, I'm not going to put him through that. So but I do. We have, you know, my clients. Yes, we have fancy, very expensive. I have some of my clients. It's cost of getting, like you know, their dog groomed is like $150 or something like that.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Yeah, no so it's like almost the cost of getting our hair done right. Like it could be close to that. My dog, marla, was so easy to groom he had such short hair so he was just and Roxy's pretty easy to. Those pit bulls.

Speaker 1: 9:00

do have that, those pit bulls Easy, easy easy, throw him in the tub.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Throw him in the tub. Veterinary cost this is a big one, this one's, this one really fluctuates because it's so hard with veterinary costs, but average number is this was what I was getting was about 200 to 500 a year. Okay, this is obviously a lot more for older dogs. Yes, and I can tell you my story with Roxy, which will kind of go to the next topic. I think about how to be prepared for that. But we can come back to that with veterinary costs.

Speaker 2: 9:32

Preventative medicine 500 to 700 a year, that's. You know flea medicine, you know tick, you know I don't know if your dogs, my dogs, have like a tick collar that they would wear like on hikes and you know flea medicine, those types of things, just preventative. And then dog walking you could probably weigh in more here, but this is, you know, dog walking, sitting boarding, and I guess I think every dog sort of ranges, but you know 500 to almost 7,000 a year per dog, but that's you know, I think the average, I think I mean at least in the major metropolitan cities, I mean the average cost of dog walking is, I think now up to 30 bucks, 30 to $40 per hour.

Speaker 1: 10:12

So if you need that every day, you know those costs really add up. And then boarding, I think, depending on where you go, but you know starts at about 50 ish, I think. So all the way up.

Speaker 2: 10:23

So right and boarding to right, where they get a bath while they're there, like that can get all the days range. And then they there's a this is an article that I found, this it's from a USA Today that I kind of got these numbers from. But they categorize unexpected surgeries, you know, anywhere from like 5,000 to 10,000. Yes, and this kind of ties into, like the next piece, which I think is dog insurance and or pet insurance in general. You know who needs it, who wants it like. Is it smart? Is it a scam? You know all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2: 10:55

For Marlowe and Roxy, we have pet insurance. Marlowe's we really didn't use until sort of the end, like we used it for you know kind of end of life. It's, you know expenses. We had a vet that was able to come to our home, you know to, so he could, you know, go peacefully. So it was really nice having that and not having to think about it financially. I would say we probably broke even with that policy. What we put into it monthly and what we got out of it over the course of eight years was probably about even for him, because he was a very healthy dog, you know. Besides that, roxy, on the other hand, the insurance company has lost quite a bit of money on him. He is allergic to everything and we did not really know, oh, that's what you were saying, oh, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:41

Holtry like just new name it and she's allergic to it. So she's on a special diet, she has to go. She has allergy injections that she has to have. We've taken her to a dermatologist, like she's had ear infections. She's lost her hearing in one ear because she's had so many ear infections. So I don't want to scare anybody, but I think it's important to know these things can happen. We adopted her in July of 2018. And now it's November of 2023. So a little over five years, I would say. We've had over $40,000 in vet bills for her. She broke her toe when we first got her and then I know I actually didn't know that they can actually break their toe.

Speaker 2: 12:27

Charlotte, it was awful we had to bring her to the vet to have a cast changed every two weeks.

Speaker 1: 12:32

I was like so like her whole paw, or like her.

Speaker 2: 12:35

It was like her whole paw, like the foot of her paw, so she was kind of walking around like she was Captain Hook, because she had this broken toe and I was like eight months pregnant.

Speaker 2: 12:46

We tried to bring her to the vet. It was insane. That was, I think, like 10 weeks I was going to say six, but it was more than six. I think it was like 10 weeks of having to go to the vet to get the bandage changed and then, after her foot healed, then we had the allergy crisis. That is still ongoing.

Speaker 2: 13:08

So the insurance company I did some math, maybe about a year ago, that if she lived to be 14 and had no other medical expenses, we would break even probably on what we pay versus what the insurance has covered for us. She has had issues since I used black math, so that's not always the case. You know, not every dog will have these type of situations, but it's so nice not to have to think about where that $40,000 is going to come from, that we pay the insurance, we pay it monthly and we have the coverage behind it. There's many different companies out there and I think that's a big thing to kind of talk about too. It's like which company do you go with? How do you know if you have the right dog insurance? It's kind of like health insurance for people. It's a little strange and you kind of ask what do you want? Like what do you want for coverage? Certain companies also offer it as a benefit, so if you're working for an employer, that's a great question to ask.

Speaker 1: 14:06

I guess that's great. So, and that's much deeper.

Speaker 2: 14:10

Yeah, so if you have a dog and you have an employer that has a great benefit package, see if they have pet insurance through there. So that's a big one. We have private insurance for Roxy and we use TruePanning and that's just what seemed to work best for our family, but there's lots of other ones out there and we pay a monthly premium or monthly for her and we have a $750 per incident deductible so she could have multiple incidents per year. So she breaks her toe one year, has allergies one year and who knows. I don't know what a third thing could be.

Speaker 1: 14:43

But it has this upset stop or an emergency visit. Yeah, each one of them. It gets stung by a bee.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Yeah, it's stung by a bee right. All three of those will have a $750 deductible per incident, so it's not per year, but for her allergies. She met that deductible four years ago, so we haven't had to pay additional deductible for that. But you can kind of based off what your budget is and what you feel like you can cover if there's an emergency, you can work on it. So maybe we pay $65 a month for her policy because our deductible is $750. If I wanted to pay less monthly, maybe I wanted to pay $40 monthly. Maybe my deductible now would be $1,200. So you can work it to feel like what do you want to Like if there's an issue? What are you comfortable covering financially if you don't? To not have to pull from your savings but also to make sure that's still affordable for your monthly budget. Yeah, so it's a lot, but not having to think about where that $40,000 is going to come from or have to put it on a credit card like that's just that could really be a really big deal. It's a huge relief.

Speaker 1: 15:46

Yeah, I had we got. And I think Pet Insurance has evolved over the years. Especially recently I was interviewing a veterinarian and a lot of the pushback that they come against with being able to treat patients the way they want to treat them is obviously financial. And if you have Pet Insurance, he said, the client is more, the patient is more apt to say do whatever you can to help this animal. And so it gives them the freedom to actually give the care that they need to give to save your animal and it also gives you the peace of mind. So he said everybody should have Pet Insurance if they can.

Speaker 1: 16:26

We got it one chance when I got it, when he was first adopted, and not a lot of people so he was. That was 16 years ago, 15 and 1 1⁄2 years ago, and he I didn't even think really to use it as much as like and until recently when he you know, obviously in the last five years he as a senior dog my gosh, his costs are through the roof, right, but it's also allows me to give him the kind of care that I want to give him and I also found out that my his rehab and his acupuncture and all of the things that help keep him moving and grew up is covered by his his health insurance.

Speaker 2: 17:07

So it's such a big deal. It's awesome for us. Yeah, and we change your right, like I mean, yeah, we didn't not this person and if we didn't have this health insurance or we didn't have this, you know pet insurance for Roxy and you know we got a bill for five grand for her allergies. Yeah, how many of those dogs end up in shelters because people just can't pay them Right, like that's, that's heartbreaking.

Speaker 1: 17:29

A lot of them, a lot of them that is a huge reason why people abandon their dogs and return their dogs to shelters, especially like their senior dogs too, right.

Speaker 2: 17:37

Right, because they're even more expensive. And that was five thousand and I'm talking 40,000. I mean, that's it's a lot of money to pay for a dog. But you know, at 60 something dollars a month I, you know I don't want to say they're never going to recoup the cost, but I will never own a dog without insurance just because of this. And you know Roxy will move on and I will adopt another one, you know, later in life. And even if I end up not using the insurance, the fact that we didn't have to cover that today is is great. You know, it's such a piece of mind having it there. And you know we get to put the expenses. You know, with the insurance we have is we front the expenses and then they bring us with a check. You know we put them on.

Speaker 1: 18:17

I think most of them do. Most of them do that yeah. But there are things like care credit and stuff like that, yeah, and so sorry, payment plan.

Speaker 2: 18:24

Yeah, or some veterinary offices will even allow you to like you can reimburse the vet's office. I'm not sure how many of them actually do that. I've never gone that route. But yeah, when we like submit the claim it says reimburse me or reimburse the vet's.

Speaker 2: 18:37

But oh got it, yeah, so that's, that's an option, but it's. It's so nice having it and not having to worry. You know where this? Oh, but where I was going is that we just put these expenses on our credit card. We pay off our credit card when the reimbursement check comes and we get some nice travel points you know for in the meantime for paying for all of these expenses for her. So thanks, roxy. We know we have a airline ticket or two from a medical, exactly so that's great.

Speaker 1: 19:09

Is there anyone that shouldn't have pet insurance. Do you think like I mean, obviously, if you're just super, if your money is not an issue, then it's not even worth having? You know, pet insurance, or I don't know how that works? Yeah, you know, it's the same thing.

Speaker 2: 19:22

Even if you know I had I guess it depends on your situation, right, like. But if, even if I had $20 million, you know, sitting in the box and like, do I still want to? You know, take $40,000 out of that, for you know the cost of covering my pet's care. I mean, if you can afford the monthly payments. It seems like. You know, it's just a little bit of a gamble, right, your self-insuring, which could be fine, and maybe you're not having to, you know, pay those expenses. But you know, that's why people, the same thing with, like health insurance, right, like, if you're healthy you need health insurance, but of course you do, because you just, you just never know what's going to happen, right?

Speaker 2: 19:57

Car accidents happen, dogs get out bites, like things just happen in the world. And it's nice, you know. We call it a banner of protection, you know? Yeah, a little question. You protect your home. You protect your house. You have life insurance. You know pet insurance is part of that.

Speaker 2: 20:11

Yeah, yeah, thank you, yeah it's a lot and I think everyone has to do their own research and take care of what insurance works fast and what works for their budget. But I do think that when we're talking about having those three to six months of fixed expenses in the bank, that you should just include the cost of your pet and then the insurance for your pet too, because that's not something I want to drop, because if you lose your job and then now your dog gets sick and you dropped your insurance, that's a lot of terrible decisions I have.

Speaker 1: 20:42

I do have not to say a sad story, but I do have. The dog is fine now he's recovered, he's great. But I do have a friend who she had health and pet insurance and she was like, and she's only paying, I think, like $35, $40 a month, along those lines, but and she just was like this is essentially, this is a scam it's not worth it.

Speaker 1: 21:02

And so then, a year and a half later, her dog. So she dropped it and you're after your dog like cancer cost her $20,000. And I'm sure she paid it right?

Speaker 2: 21:11

Yeah, she paid it. Now she has a human baby.

Speaker 1: 21:13

so she's just like that yeah, that's her first baby and he's doing great and he's wonderful. But she was like, yeah, you were right, yeah, so.

Speaker 2: 21:21

It's really hard and I mean I think it just has to be part of being like a responsible pet owner. You do everything else, right? Yeah, like you bring them to the vet, you take them on walks, like you do all these things, but if you can't pay for the care, that's tough and no one wants to be put in that spot. You know having to make a decision of how they're going to treat their animal, which for most people, like you said, it's like their baby. Like Marlo was my first baby. He was my, you know, out of college dog and, yeah, we would have done anything to try to keep him alive Anything.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 21:57

And then I know, do you?

Speaker 1: 21:58

I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 21:59

No, no go ahead.

Speaker 1: 22:01

This might not be your wheelhouse, but do you know of like any? Like a low, low, lower cost where people can seek lower cost care? Still wonderful care, but low, like for people who may be struggling financially. I can't even make that kind of commitment, you know.

Speaker 2: 22:22

I think there's there like there's a lot of like clinics that get open up. We adopted Roxy from oh gosh now I can't remember the name it was in Culver City. Oh, adopt and Shop in Culver City. They since closed down, but I know they had some clinics and you know, part of like the adoption thing for her was she had to be like spayed and neutered before you know she's spayed Low cost spay and neutering.

Speaker 2: 22:44

Yeah, so they have some of those. There is a rescue organization which is where I got Marlo from. They're called START S-T-A-R-T Rescue and they do a lot of work with shelters and they do a lot of either no cost or very low cost, you know, spay and neuters. They have like mobile vans that they work with, like the Riverside shelter. So there are things out there. I think you have to do a little bit of research, but it seems like the shelters are good spots and a lot of these I don't want to say private rescues because they're not private, they're, all you know, not profits, 501c3s, but they do a lot of fundraising to kind of, you know, do the spay and neuters and do the vaccines, because you know, spay and neuter is such a big part of keeping animals off the street. So we do live in a great big city so there are lots of resources. Yeah, it's just kind of keeping your eyes out for, I think, those special, you know, events that happen.

Speaker 1: 23:37

But START rescue is great, yeah, okay, I'll put that in the show notes. I mean, I think that that's just the key. I think people don't realize that those things can be available to them and you just have to do your research and you know, ask around and don't be afraid to ask.

Speaker 2: 23:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:52

It's out there and somebody's probably willing to help you.

Speaker 2: 23:54

So yeah, it seems like you know I wouldn't necessarily ask the vet's office. It's sometimes, you know, that's volunteer kind of for those you know events. But it's a lot of rescue groups which I've noticed have put them all Well.

Speaker 1: 24:07

They want to keep those stocks they want to get those stocks into good home and keep them there. They don't want those stocks coming back because people can't afford them, so they're doing the best they can to provide, you know, the best case scenario for those pups that they've rescued.

Speaker 2: 24:18

So yeah, so I mean being in a light such a you know it's a blessing and a curse, right, there's so much information but there's so many options, full sorts of different. You know that's here you kind of just pick your specialty. Roxy has a dermatologist.

Speaker 1: 24:31

You know that's crazy yeah yeah, yeah, they've all been on my podcast. Yeah, that's the other thing like not knowing that those they existed. Yeah, so like quality of health care.

Speaker 2: 24:41

Yeah, yeah, and we have, we have that here. But yeah, I think it's a, it's a big financial commitment. You know people, I think, joke that getting a dog is like having a child and I, you know I have both. I can say they're not exactly the same but, like you, there is a certain level of responsibility that you have to have for both of them. I mean you're their caretaker, they depend on you for everything. So you know it's you have to. I think what. I think there's a there's probably memes or clothes is like be the person your dog thinks you are, like you know that's who you need to be. Right, like, take care of your fur babies. And I mean they take care of us. You know the. What they do for us is a big deal too.

Speaker 1: 25:25

Absolutely yes, they do. They do. How do people know if they're thinking about pet ownership, how, or bringing a furry, furry friend into their family? Like, how do they know when? Looking at their finances is something that they can? That's realistic for them. I don't want to dissuade them from doing it. You know what I mean, but it's also, you know, as I've said before, it can be a heavy price, as we've talked about.

Speaker 2: 25:57

I think when I'm doing financial planning meetings with clients, you sit down and you work on a budget, right, how much does your budget? You do the whole thing? Right, figure out how much money you bring in versus how much money you spend. And I guess the big thing is, if you don't have a surplus at the end of the month, then you're probably not able to care for a pet right now, right? Like you know, we talked about some of the average numbers. Those might just be good places to start. So if you figure you're doing your budget and you're, you know how much you spend on rent, how much you spend on groceries, car payments, all these things, and then add in those extra, you know, if we're calling it, maybe I don't know, it could be anywhere. You know, average we talked about was being about 4500 a year, gen Z, maybe 7000 a year, you know. Even take 6000, right, how much is that monthly? Add that extra $500 a month and figure out if that's something that you can afford. Would be a really just good place to start.

Speaker 2: 26:46

But you know, do you have family support, like, do you have a partner? Are you doing this together? Are you doing this by yourself? I know we're talking about dogs specifically. It seems like cats are probably a little bit. You know, they're lower. Well, I'd say they're lower maintenance. They have their own, you know do you let?

Speaker 1: 27:03

I don't know if they are. My friend has two cats I don't know if she Talking about health. Back to the health insurance conversation. She one had an emergency and she has, luckily, health insurance for him. But he the cost of that emergency visit was $15,000. He was there for a few days. She had to fork over. I think it was a little under a thousand.

Speaker 2: 27:22

Right.

Speaker 1: 27:23

And then insurance reimbursed her for the rest of it, which is not I mean $1,000 out of 15 grand is. Yes, it feels like, it might seem like.

Speaker 2: 27:29

But yeah, yeah, maybe you're not paying for a walker, you're not paying for yes. Yes, but I think it's also just what type of pet maybe fits for your lifestyle. Maybe you really really want a dog, but that's just maybe not something that's in the budget. Go rescue a cat instead. Yeah, but I think just making sure that you have that financial backing, because I think people think that they're they don't cost that much, but, as we've kind of gone over, they do.

Speaker 2: 27:54

And one thing I did want to mention is when we were talking about the pet insurance. It's really, I think, important to get the pet insurance early, because you will be sort of rated or your dog will be rated based off if they have preexisting conditions. So we got it for Roxy, I think the day that we adopted her. Had we waited a year and found out all these allergy issues were a problem in her life, she would have had all these preexisting conditions and now her premiums would be so much more monthly. So the older they are, if they have preexisting conditions, then this can get more expensive. So if you sort of lock it in early, when you're probably less likely to use it, it's really nice.

Speaker 2: 28:33

But, although puppies are trouble, puppies can get. They're gonna cause a lot of trouble with food, fire, veterinary care early, but Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 28:42

They're eating a whole sock.

Speaker 2: 28:43

They're eating all of those things. The wall like, yeah, the wall.

Speaker 1: 28:47

Well, if they're eating the wall, they may have some other things going on. Just teething they're trouble.

Speaker 2: 28:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but waiting until your dog is 12 to get pet insurance when they're older is gonna be quite expensive.

Speaker 1: 29:01

Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm a little bit of a catlin. I really appreciate this. I wish I had known all of this before I got chance, but I did get on board with the pet insurance part, but yeah. Well, at least somehow made it through and made it work, but yeah, and, like you said, pet insurance has come a long way in.

Speaker 2: 29:23

even I noticed a difference between Marlowe and Roxy, but everything's changing. There's all these stuff that's changing for In the pet industry in general, in the insurance industry, there's always new things happening, which is great. But no, this was really fun. I'm glad we were able to talk financial planning on dog ownership and kind of what to expect for your fur baby.

Speaker 1: 29:47

Absolutely. Thank you, caitlin. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Baroo Podcast. As always, if you enjoyed the episode, please don't forget to rate and follow the Baroo wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also support us by following us on Instagram at Baroo Podcast. If you have a story of canine companionship that you'd like to share on the show, or a question, or even a comment, I would love to hear from you. You can email me, charlotte, at thebaroocom. All right, you guys, see you next time.