You do the Math

A few weeks ago, I realized that I was going to have to board my dog for a then upcoming trip. I was heading to Orlando for a conference and would be gone for 4 days. Because I was returning on a Saturday night, in boarding terms that would equal to 6 days as they are not open on Sundays. The place that I normally board my dog is conveniently within a few miles of my place, but it costs $27/night. For 6 nights, that would be over $162. So, being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to find a different kennel for Kelsey. I was very excited to locate a place in Alpharetta (about 30 miles from my place) that would board her for $18/night. AND as a special bonus, they offered a 5th night free discount, and furthermore, they had a Sunday pickup time! With this wonderful find, I was down to $72 total plus a $20 bath - why not? Even with the extra cost of gas for driving to Alpharetta and back (twice) it was still much cheaper than the alternative.

Everything went swimmingly until a few days after I picked Kelsey up from this kennel. In the middle of the night last Thursday, at about precisely 3am, she startled me in the middle of the night with a fit of coughing and heaving that had me fearing her imminent death. After a few minutes of freaking out for both of us, she stopped hacking and sort of looked at me like what just happened and why didn't you prevent it? I apologized profusely (yes, to my dog), gave her a few love pats, and then settled back into bed. A few hours later, same deal, hacking, coughing, heaving, freaking, etc. Then it was over again. I sort of hoped it would go away, but Friday night proved to be about the same, not to mention she had a few fits during the day on Friday. Saturday morning, it hit me all of a sudden - one of the required vaccinations for boarding your dog is for kennel cough. I quickly googled this and found that Kelsey's symptoms were remarkably similar to the description. It turns out kennel cough is highly contagious in dogs and not surpisingly is commonly picked up in kennels. So off we went to the vet, who was thankfully able to see her on a Saturday and on short notice. She agreed that it was probably kennel cough and prescribed some antibiotics.

Here is where the math comes in. The vet cost $78 for the visit and medication. So did I save any money after all? Ok, I'll do the math for you. No, I did not save money. In fact, it has now cost me more money in total than it would have been to just board Kelsey at the expensive kennel. Sigh. I sort of felt God laughing at me as I realized all of this. Not that he enjoys seeing me get exasperated, but in the grand scheme of things, all of my planning and scheming just didn't amount to much. Pretty typical of the planning and scheming of my little earthly self.