Insurance

Unrelated picture of mama feeding- she'll still let them, occasionally!

Ok, so I'm going to waffle on about insurance today, and this is a post specifically for my new kitten families. The kittens come with four weeks free insurance with PetPlan. I'll activate this on the Monday or Tuesday before they come home, so that the paperwork should be with you (or at least on the way) by the time you bring home your kitten. This gives you a couple of weeks in which to sort out your own insurance.
My kittens will come home at thirteen weeks, to the best of my knowledge, fit and healthy. They will also have been vet checked five times (six for Wendell and Kenneth!) and had the usual kitten course of vaccinations, flea treatments and worm treatments. It's hard to imagine anything going wrong and yet it happens, cats get sick just like people do and there's no pet NHS to cover the cost.

I'm a big fan of cat insurance, and I would advise you to both to insure your cat and get the best one you can afford, rather than the cheapest going. One must be pragmatic about this... some are pricey- I would love to be able to afford Petplan, for example, but it's a little beyond my means. The one I have isn't as comprehensive, admittedly, and the very cheapest ones are, naturally, quite limited, but my thoughts are that some insurance is better than none at all.

It isn't nice to think about, but some insurances will cover the cost of the cat, if it dies- which leaves you with a sum of money ready to buy another kitten, when you are ready. Some insurances will pay out if your cat goes missing too, with a certain amount for costs incurred whilst looking for the cat. So I can't really recommend a specific insurance as it will vary according to your needs. I have Tesco's 'Extra' cover.

One last thing... I have heard that you can't claim for the first week or so of a new insurance, so don't wait till right at the end of the four free weeks to start the new one or you will have a gap. So unless you are continuing with Petplan, have an overlap of insurances for at least a few days to make sure that you are covered at all times.