(Bloomberg) -- Maria Makara didn’t hesitate to insure her two new dogs. That’s because they’re family.
Her previous pet, a Yorkshire terrier, died in 2013 after contracting pancreatitis and Cushing’s disease. Makara ended up paying $4,000 for treatments and tests in the dog’s final years. Last month she bought health insurance for her two “boys.” For $40 a month, she insures both Jack, a white Chihuahua-poodle mix, or chi-poo, and Colby, a four-pound (2 kilogram) morkie-poo, a mix of Maltese, Yorkie, and poodle breeds.
“They’re my babies,” Makara, 36, said by phone from her office in New York where she works as a marketing director. “There are a lot of people like myself who have dogs and don’t have children, or they’re a single person living by themselves. People like me have a disposable income and they’re spending it on their dogs.”
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