Reply To: Saving A Pets Life – How Much Should I Spend?

Gatesheader, I dont think your a “heretic” at all. You saved the lives of these animals and who knows what there tafkid is on this planet. We had a cat once that came to kiddush every shabbos. It Really did! And the one shabbos it didnt, we found it dead outside. I took in a 2 week old kitten whos mother abandoned it. It wasnt sick or dying but I remember feeding it with an eye dropper because it was so small and couldnt eat regular cat food yet. So I understand where your coming from. If Rivka and Moshe both went out of there way to care for animals, (there could be others from tnach)I believe we should too. I just know my bird probably sings more shira to Hashem then I do so who am I to let it die when she could be saved. The fact she regressed tho, no one expected. This is whats costing us alot of money- trying to figure out whats wrong and treat her accordingly. BH they said her injuries are healing nicely but something happened that led her to decline. The vet said she was acting alittle more perky today and actually flew around the room. She just for whatever reason is still not eating properly and acting depressed. One feeling he has is that it could be her pain meds. The other vet assumed head trauma, but this vet thinks if it was head trauma it would have happened immediately not 5 days later. He is also thinking it could be possible lead poisoning as shes showing symptoms similar to that. So they stopped her pain meds to see if shed perk up and gave her meds for lead poisoning. He said birds tend to not show they are sick, esp if they are prey birds. And when they do show signs that they are sick, many times its too late. Hes not sure why she would show the symptoms now but his feeling was maybe be becuase shes weak and injured she cant hide it anymore. So they treated her for lead poisoning without even testing because he said its cheaper this way and wouldnt harm her if his instinct is wrong. Like I said she does come out of her cage often and she loves this one spot in our apartment which is too high for us to see whats up there. I never knew what she was doing there. Maybe eating things she shouldnt eat. So well see if this treatment works.

Daniela, I am so sorry for belittling your title! You should have your name as Dr Daniela :). Anyways your right I can see where having a pet can lead to aveiros. Nueturing I remember I think we were told we had to sell our cat to a goy and then buy it back. And we had to get foods that did not have mixed milk and meat products in it and of course no chometz ingredients during pesach. You just have to be careful with halachos.