How Far Would You Go to Keep Your Pet Safe?

If you're a pet owner and you're anything like me, your pets are a part of your family.

I own a couple of dogs and over the weekend, one of them got out of our backyard and ran away. The gate to our fence blew open thanks to all the wind we experiencing on Sunday in Sioux Falls.

Once my wife discovered that one of her babies had left on an unsupervised walk without their human, she went into an immediate panic. I was on my way to work at the time she discovered the dog was missing. Once she did, I received a frantic call instructing me to get my you know what home right away and help her start looking.

I raced home and fortunately found our little runaway a few blocks from our house just standing on a street corner looking like she was waiting to catch a bus. Tragedy averted. The gate to our fence is now triple locked. I think Fort Knox would be easier to break into  at this point.

After the whole ordeal this past weekend, it got me wondering how many other people out there are as obsessed with their pets as much as I am. I wondered what kind of money they’d be willing to spend and what kind of measures they would be willing to take to keep them safe?

I decided to do a little research, and here's what I found:

According to a survey from CBS News and Vanity Fair, 15% of people say they'd spend ANY amount of money on medical treatments for their fury friends. Another 9% would spend between $5,000-10,000. And 22% said they would gladly spend up to $1,000 on their pet to keep them alive.

Now here's where it gets interesting. More than three-quarters of us would risk our own lives to save our pet from danger. 78% reported they would run into a burning house or dart out in front of an oncoming car to save their pet. That includes 81% dog owners and 71% of cat owners.

That’s a lot of devoted pet owners.

If you're a pet owner, make sure all your pet's vaccinations are up to date and please make sure your pet is wearing a collar with their name and owner contact information clearly displayed on it.

We need to take care of those little critters, because there are few things in life worse than losing your four legged friend!