What the first year with a dog or cat really costs

There are two answers to this question. The quick one is “a few hundred a year”, and it is what you hear from friends. The honest one is less comfortable and, above all, shaped differently: the most expensive things are not the ones you plan for, but the ones you did not know about.

This article gives no prices. They change every year and differ from region to region, so it would be wrong within months. It lists items — and it is the list itself that surprises most people.

What gets budgeted anyway

• The animal itself — a breeder’s price or a shelter’s adoption fee.
• Food for a whole year. For a large dog it is the biggest regular cost of all.
• Basic kit: bed, bowls, lead, carrier, and for a cat a litter tray and scratching post.

This part can be estimated in advance and rarely catches anyone out. The problem lies elsewhere.

What is compulsory in many places and still forgotten

Vaccinations and worming in the first year are not one appointment but several. A young animal goes back to the vet repeatedly, and the intervals are set by its age, not by the owner.

Neutering is a one-off cost that often falls within the first year. For a bitch or a female cat it is considerably more expensive than for a male, because it is abdominal surgery.

Microchipping and registration. In much of Europe a chip is compulsory for dogs — in the UK for dogs and, in England, for cats too. The chip itself is cheap, but it is worthless without current contact details in the database, and those are exactly what people forget to update after moving house.

Dog tax or licence. Several countries charge an annual fee for keeping a dog — Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Ireland among them — and where it is set locally it can differ several times over between neighbouring towns. It is worth checking before you get the dog.

Liability insurance. In some German states it is compulsory for dog owners, and it is sensible everywhere. A dog that runs in front of a car can cause damage few people could pay for out of their own pocket.

The item nobody budgets for, and the one that breaks the budget

One unplanned visit to the vet.

Not the routine check-up — that can be expected. But a swallowed sock, a limp that is still there in the morning, diarrhoea on its third day, an ear infection, a torn claw. With a young animal the odds of something like that in the first year are high, because it puts its nose into everything and cannot yet judge what is dangerous.

A single night-time emergency visit can easily cost more than a year of food. And it comes at a moment when nobody is thinking about money.

The practical conclusion: keep aside a sum equal to several months of your pet budget. Not as a reserve “just in case”, but as a normal part of the plan — with a young animal it almost always gets used.

And then there are costs that are not in money

This part gets talked about least, and yet it decides things more often than money does.

• Time. A puppy cannot be left alone for eight hours. Nor can a kitten in its first weeks. Anyone who works away from home has to have this solved before the animal arrives — not once it turns out not to work.
• Holidays and weekends. Either you go where the animal is allowed, or you pay for care. Both are limits that get overlooked in the excitement of a new puppy or kitten.
• Ten to twenty years. A cat commonly lives fifteen years or more. A decision made in one evening lasts longer than most jobs and quite a few relationships.

Why it is worth doing the sums, even when the answer is uncomfortable

Not so that you change your mind. Most people who do the sums get the animal anyway — just prepared.

But shelters are full of animals that arrived after the words “we can’t cope any more”. Behind those words there is rarely ill will. There is usually a sum nobody did in advance.

Half an hour with a pencil and one phone call to the council cost less than those words.