Pets edition

I just purchased another discount store gift card to Petco.  This one had a 20% discount. Not quite as good of a discount as the first card I purchased, but nothing to sneeze at. I purchased a card with $59.54 value (should cover the bag of dog food and tax), plus, since we purchased the last bag of Blue dog food at Petco, they mailed me a coupon for $3 off a bag, that will bring my total savings to about 25% on the dog food. Now, if it's on sale when I need it, it will be even sweeter ;)

I should probably start buying cards for Home Depot or Lowe's.  With all the yard stuff we do for the next 5-6 months, I'm sure to be using them up. Most I can find seem to be discounted at 9 or 10%.  Better than paying full price is still a deal.

I have also been purchasing my dogs flea treatment online, rather than buying at the pet store. I think I saved about $13 on a 4 months supply (which is really a 2 month supply for 2 dogs). I just have to remember to order about 10 days before I need it, so that it has time to ship.  I wasn't very good about doing flea treatments monthly in the past, until I took younger pup to the vet for his annual exam a few months ago and in talking with the vet about his chronic itchiness (which the vet I took him to as a puppy thought was due to dry skin) she saw some "flea dirt" in his fur and said if he's allergic to flea bites even one bite can cause him to itch like crazy. When this all started (as a young pup) we didn't know if it was allergies, dry skin or what (they didn't see signs of fleas) so we switched him to the expensive food and I give him fish oil pills. Those pills are not cheap! A 90 day supply cost me about $36. But, the past 4 months, since I have been diligent about the flea treatments, the itching has pretty much stopped.  So, I think I am going to try stopping the fish oil pills and see how that goes. Might be he never really needed them and it was a flea bite causing his problems all along. If he doesn't need the fish oil tablets, that will save about $150 a year.

We also have tried the "grass saver" tablets, supposedly to help not turn your lawn yellow when they pee on it. We get terrible dead spots in our front lawn, where they always head out the door to pee. But the tablets (I've tried 2 brands) don't really seem to help much and they are also pretty pricey, because they are big dogs and need quite a few tablets each day. I guess I'll have to start researching some other options to try and fix this problem. I have read that a little ketchup on their food will do the trick.  Guess it's worth a try.  We have tried to get them to walk over to the gravel area, but not much luck. Our older male dog actually pees like a male, so he doesn't always pee on the grass, but the younger dog pees like a girl, so he always goes on the grass. It was costing me about $20 a month for those chewable tablets, so definitely not cheap, especially as it really didn't help much. Cutting these 2 expenses out is over $30 a month savings.  BUT, I do have to find something to help with the lawn and if pup starts itching again, I'll have to go back to the fish oil pills.

Our barn cats are out and about, rarely seen by us, unless we happen to see them on our security cameras or once in awhile they happen to be crossing the road from a neighbors back to our place.  I think I saw one of them around the corner, clear on the other side of the houses in front of us when I was coming into the private road the other day. If so, she was quite a ways from home base! The food is gone pretty much every day, so they are obviously around. DD went out to put food in their hut one day and found Thelma up in the hut. She just hissed......guess she already forgot how much she loved having us pet her and love on her just several months ago! They have gotten pretty big too from the quick glimpses we get.

Our old cat is still old and grumpy! I think he is about 13 years old now. He seems to spend more time outdoors now that we got the barn cats, which is interesting. He only comes in the house about every other day now, where before he would come in every morning and stay in all day until late evening.

The parakeets are well, though I really need to figure out how to get a hold of one of them. His claw nails are very long and curling and need to be trimmed. I recall having to do this with the parakeet we had when I was a child, but he was tame and would sit on our finger and easy to get a hold of. This one will squawk and bite like crazy, so I haven't made the attempt yet.  Speaking of the birds...I really need to get their cage cleaned today!

I have to take our older dog into the vet for his annual exam tomorrow morning. I totally forgot to budget for it, so now I will have to transfer part of the $500 I put in savings last week. I'll add the expense to my next paycheck budget (where I have a lot of wiggle room) and so the money will end up back in savings when I get paid next week. He's also been eating grass and grass clippings (where DH dumped them in the back of our property) the past week and spent all of Tuesday night puking all over my carpet and even on my bed and dh caught him trying to eat more this morning. I will be asking the vet what to do about that problem or at least figure out why he's doing it, if we can.

Lots of responsibility and costs these mutts, cats and birds are, but wouldn't trade them for anything!