You've got it backwards, CameronR. - people often have health insurance; pets rarely do, and so actually cost far more. Vets can make way more money than primary care physicians. They don't need malpractice insurance unless they specialize in something like racehorses, don't need to spend half their time haggling with insurance companies, and employ helpers who don't earn a lot. Plenty of people will pay 20K for a dog or cat procedure, or a horse or mule. Dogs are our loyal servants whom we should treat kindly, but cats know they are our masters, so we have no choice. Since vets are so damn expensive anyway, I took one of our cats right to the best clinic in the world about an hour away at UC Davis Vet School, where even the helpers are studying for advanced degrees. Since they're primarily an agricultural school, they have wonderful shaded botanical gardens all around. With a few hours to spare, I'd casually wander around with a good book and my Nikon around my neck, and yes, that 85/1.4 lens.