A bullet is cheaper

In a forum I belong to, my husband made a statment about how when he was growing up in the country hills, his family didn't place a lot of emphasis on their pets. In fact, I think he suggested that a free dog is not a dog that should have much money spent on it because then you lose on your initial investment of zero.

I'm sure he didn't mean it this way, because he's a good man and he likes animals, but suggesting that a bullet is cheaper than taking a pet you love to the vet just strikes me as cruel, not to mention irresponsible. Of course in my head there lives a universe of rules and regulations concerning everything, rules that I'm sure I'll violate as soon as Thing One is born.

Anyway, the big difference between my husband and I is that in my family pets were included as members of the family, in the same way that old friends become part of the family. Aside from the bond I personally felt for these animals, we took them in and decided to raise them. In that way I feel we took an oath to try and provide for them as well as we could, helping them through sickness, surgery, or infection, just as we would a family member, not until we decided our ROI wasn't good enough so, heck, let Sparky die and then buy me some wacky tobacky and front teeth.

Since converting him to my way of thinking is not an option, I am going to have to end up spending ridiculous amounts of money on our future dog just to make sure the mister sees a good return on investment.

Anyone know of any dogs that cost upwards of $4,000? ;)