The Money Post (a.k.a. Why the Cat Isn't Free)
By Ashley Schausten
Someone asked me a fair question this week, and I've been chewing on it ever since.
"If the rescue is about saving cats, why is there an $85 fee? Isn't the cat free?"
No. The cat is not free. The cat has never been free. The cat is, in fact, one of the more expensive things you can fall in love with. And I would rather tell you the truth about that than hand you a kitten and let the math surprise you later.
What one kitten actually costs
By the time a kitten is ready to go home, they have usually been through:
- A full veterinary exam
- Age-appropriate vaccinations, sometimes two or three rounds of them
- Deworming, twice if they came in rough
- Flea treatment
- Weeks of food — and if they were bottle babies, kitten milk replacer, which costs more per ounce than anything I buy for myself
- Litter, heating pads, bedding, toys, and about forty loads of laundry
- And occasionally an emergency vet visit at 9 p.m. on a Sunday that costs more than everything else combined
That's before we talk about the gas, the carriers, the scale I use to weigh them every morning, or the hours. Always the hours.
So when someone says the cat was free, what they usually mean is that somebody else already paid. That's the whole thing. A rescue is a machine for absorbing costs so the person at the end of the line gets to just... have a cat.
And here's the part I need to be honest about
Our cats do not come to you already spayed or neutered. They used to be described that way on this site, and I changed it — because it wasn't true anymore, and I'm not going to write things I can't deliver.
Spay and neuter surgery is expensive. A couple hundred dollars a cat, sometimes more if something's complicated, and with this many cats coming through it is simply not something I can cover out of pocket and still keep the lights on. I would rather say that out loud than quietly promise it and then not come through.
But — and this is the important part — you don't have to pay full price either.
How to get your cat fixed without it hurting
There's a resource in the Grand Valley that more people should know about: GVPA offers spay and neuter vouchers that bring the cost down to something genuinely affordable. Those vouchers can be used at Cottonwood Vet or Arrowhead Vet in Fruita.
That's it. That's the whole secret. You ask us, we help you get the voucher, you book the appointment, and the surgery you were dreading because of the price tag turns into a normal, doable errand.
I know money is tight. I know it's tight for basically everyone right now, including me. Needing help with a vet bill doesn't make you a bad pet owner — hiding from the appointment does. So please just ask. I will never make you feel weird about it.
So what does the fee cover, then?
The adoption fee is $85 for a single kitten, $115 for a pair, and $75 for an older cat. What it covers: the exam, the vaccines, the deworming, the flea treatment, the food, and the fact that somebody was up at 4 a.m. with a syringe and a very small, very loud creature.
What it doesn't cover: even close to the real cost. Not remotely. It's a fraction, and it's a fraction I'm grateful for, because it goes straight into the next cat. The next intake, the next bottle baby, the next emergency.
If you want to help cover the difference for the cats who are here right now — the surgeries, the formula, the 9 p.m. Sunday visits — donating to our spay and neuter fund is the single most useful thing you can do. And if cash isn't the thing, supplies are: kitten milk replacer, wet and dry kitten food, non-clumping litter, heating pads, clean towels. Drop them at Schausten's Autobody & Paint, or message us and we'll figure it out.
The short version
Cats aren't free. But they are worth it, and nobody has to do it alone — not the adopter, and not me.
If you've been putting off getting your cat fixed because of the price, message us. We'll help you find the voucher, and we'll be nice about it. That's what we're here for.
