h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Our ferret Malfie is very sick. Sick to the point that she's been hovering near death for the last few days, and has to be force-fed everything.

D spoke with his mother, who is a nurse, who said that Malfie should have improved on the antibiotics she was taking by now, and that we needed to take her to the vet.

We took her to the emergency center just down the road... They quoted us $1500 for her care. That's more than our rent.

We paid the money, but now we're going to have to scramble to get rent, which is due on Tuesday. Which I had before all this, but we spent $200 on Turbo's funeral arrangements, and $500 on Malfie's first three visits to the vet. Now this.

I don't know what I'm going to do...

Oh Sea, hang in there. I'm sure something will turn up.

Wish I had some advice for this type of situation. I've never been good with money matters, I'm afraid.

I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Hang in there, and remember that Malfie will probably be nice and happy when everything's over with.

I'm just flying in, I know you don't know me at all and I hope you don't mind me posting to you.

I'm really sorry about the way things are for you right now, and I hope that things will start looking up for your ferret.

On the money matter, I know it's much easier to panic and run around like a headless chicken. It feels much safer than trying to sort it out as well.

However, you need to sit down and work out exactly what you need to pay, what you want to pay, and what might be nice to pay. Then you need to work out how much money you have, how much money you will have, and how much money you wish you had but you're fooling yourself if you say it's there.

Once you know those then you can see how much will be left over on either side once you've sorted everything out. So the stuff left on the 'must pay' side may be bigger but at least you know exactly how much it is and you can break that down into smaller pieces if it helps you to think of it like that.

I can't help you with exactly how to get the money to pay for these things, I don't know enough about you, but at least that might be a start.

Kat

Malfie's gone. We couldn't afford to give her a surgery she might not survive, so we put her down.

I'm so sorry you had to make that decision. It's good that you had her put down rather than struggled on without the surgery, and that must have been a tough decision to have to make.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss.

Courtesy

As am I.

Losing creatures that are close to us is always hard. I'm so sorry to hear that.

sea, you might not see it now, but you have made the right decision for Malfie. Surgey on small animals is hazardous and there is a high chance that Malfie would not have survived. Comfort yourself with this thought.

If money is still an issue, Kat's advice is excellent. The only thing I would add is: ask your main creditors if they would accept a reduced payment for a month or two, pointing out that some payment is better than none at all.

I am very sorry for your loss, sea, especially so soon after losing Turbo. I know you don't think so right now, but you did the right thing.

Pay rent first. Being homeless is not an option.

I'm sorry, sea. I lost a rabbit two years ago. One of the saddest days in my life.

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, sea.

Thanks, guys. It's been hard. Very, very hard...