So my Kraymer has acid reflux according to the vet. Seriously??? So anyways - no puking while we were away... after I had spent $250 at the vet, $80 of it being special food for the boy, and $25 on pepcid. I am going to mix the vet food and his regular food and hope for the best - if he starts puking again he will go back on the super expensive food but man I hope not!!! After that expense I left the $200 check for the petsitter...

A friend sent me this article today, and you betcha it rings true! Here's the link:

https://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121686210475379607.html

and here's the article:

How My Paycheck
Went to the Dogs

July 24, 2008; Page D3

After children, few living things will do as much to ruin your personal finances as dogs.

I should know, having three of each.

Dogs are deceptively expensive. The two most obvious costs -- what you pay for the dog and the cost of dog food -- aren't close to the biggest ones. Instead, dogs bleed us through veterinarian costs, boarding costs, and the damage they do to our homes and yards.

Consider our lovable 11-year-old beagle, Andy. I read up before I bought him as a puppy. I found that beagles are healthy and tend to have big litters so the puppies are cheap. I paid $150 for Andy. That's not big money. I feed him lamb-and-rice dried dog food, which I buy at Sam's Club for $20 for a gargantuan sack. That's not big money either.

The big money came when Andy escaped several years ago through an open garage door without anyone realizing it. He returned with a scrape on his flank. A neighbor came by to tell us a car had hit Andy, who then took off for home like a bolt of lightning. The next day, Andy could barely walk, and we took him to the vet. Broken leg. By the time the vet had X-rayed him, put him in the cast and given him medicine, we were out $1,000. Ouch. I figure that's nearly what it will cost to feed Andy for his entire life.

It gets worse. Later, Andy got a mysterious ailment and had trouble walking. We took him to the same vet, who kept him for a couple days of "observation." After two days, Andy was still staggering around, and we were out another $1,000.

We took him to a different vet, who determined our hound had a herniated disk. She gave him steroids, which did the trick. That cost us only a couple of hundred dollars, and she immediately become our regular vet.

We have since acquired a couple of smaller dogs, a Chihuahua and a terrier. It's too often the same story. Dog eats something it shouldn't. Dog gets sick. Dog goes to vet. Vet keeps dog for observation or to run tests. Owner eventually pays $500 to vet and takes dog home. Dog gets better on its own.

That brings us to boarding. We generally leave Andy with our vet in Dallas. He sits in a cage, they take him out a couple of times a day. A few years ago, my wife felt sorry for Andy and placed him in a sort of dog resort she had read about in the newspaper. It cost more. But when we visited, they emphasized how the dogs spent all their time playing together instead of being caged up.

After a long vacation, we came to pick him up. The dog resort complained that Andy howled all the time (something he only does at home when he's left alone, I might note). A few days later, we received a letter informing us the resort had stopped accepting "vociferous breeds" like beagles.

Good riddance, I thought, to your vociferous charges.

Write to Neal Templin at neal.templin@wsj.com4