Cat held for "ransom" by veterinarian

After being praised in Straight Goods for honesty, Toronto veterinarian ups bill and refuses to release editor's cat

Adventures in cat care, Part 2

By: Susan Sperling

  As if it's not bad enough that I had to deal with digital tongue-lashings by hordes of Straight Goods readers. As if I don't have enough to endure being called a "monster" for my hesitance about spending $800 to save Sam, my five-year old cat, when he got sick last weekend. Now I can't even get the poor beast back from the vet.
  Wednesday afternoon, I called the vet's office to see if Sam was ready to be released after a procedure to unblock his, well, quite frankly, his penis. That evening, my husband Mark trotted off to the local vet's office to pick Sam up while I put our daughter Rachel to bed. Less than a half hour later, Mark returned home, looking awfully empty-handed for someone who was supposed to be carrying an 18-pound feline. Had Sam lost that much weight in three days, or was Mark missing something important?
  "They won't release him until we pay the full amount," I guessed.
 

The kitty's being held - for a boarding fee of $22 per day, thank you very much - until we cough up enough money for the entire bill

  "You're an astute woman," Mark replied. Turns out that we'd only paid one-quarter of the total estimate when we'd brought him in on Sunday, instead of the 50% normally required. We were planning to pay the rest of the deposit when we picked him up and pay the rest the following day. You'd think that wouldn't be a huge problem, given that they have our credit card on file.
  No such luck. The kitty's being held - for a boarding fee of $22 per day, thank you very much - until we cough up enough money for the entire bill. Which, by the way, was not $800, which was the original estimate. Nor was it the $700 that we'd been told when the clinic called last weekend with the good news that Sam's problem wasn't as bad as first thought. No, we had to pay a grand total of $950.
 

Did they call us when they realized that Sam's treatment would be $250 more expensive than they'd estimated? Of course not.

  That's right. $950. It seems that the blood tests revealed a nasty bladder infection which had to be treated by VERY expensive antibiotics. No generics for our cat, no sir. But did they call us when they realized that his treatment would be $250 more expensive than they'd estimated? Of course not.
  It seems wrong to me that we never got that important phone call. The veterinarian saw us agonizing about whether or not we'd be able to pay the original $800; he heard us say that we only had one income, that we were struggling to pay childcare and bills while Mark is studying to be a social worker. We had committed to treat Sam, committed to pay to save his life. He should have extended the courtesy of phoning us so that we could arrange to come up with the extra money. Don't mechanics generally phone when it turns out the back brakes are shot, too?
  Or the clinic could have offered to work out a payment plan with us. Instead, they are holding on to Sam. Come to think of it, a $22 a day boarding charge for people who are only boarding the cat because they can't afford their vet bills seems ironic to me. Ironic, that is, in an extortion kind of way.
  It's not just the money. I kind of miss Sam.
  Well, not really. But I thought that sounded like a nice thing to say.

Get More/Do More
Read Part 1 of Susan's Adventures in Cat Care, Saving the cat's meow

To make a donation to the Liberate Sam fund, click here.

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