America's Cats: The Voiceless Victims Of The Recession

A USA Today overview of the way people are pinching pennies speaks to one Leigh Gostowski, a Tennessee resident who’s decided to cut back on her spending habits. Gone are the $200 weekly shopping sprees at Macy’s and Dillards; they’ve been replaced by book clubs and needlepoint circles and actually spending time with friends! “I know it will be a permanent change in my life because I enjoy it so much more,” Gostowski says of her new, thrifty ways. But no one thought to ask her cats if they were enjoying their owner’s new outlook on life!

Until the downturn, Gostowski spent years — and thousands of dollars — pampering her cats with the finest brands. Among other things, she would go online to order Newman’s Own Organics Premium Pet Food at $1.50 a can.

Toss in shipping costs, and she was spending more than $100 a month on cat food.

Once the stock market plummeted, “I couldn’t keep that up indefinitely,” she says. Now she pays 43 cents a can at Wal-Mart for Friskies — less than one-third of what she used to pay.

Shipping cat food? Well, when your spending habits vaguely resemble the very same ones that forced Pets.com to hang up their sock puppet back in the day, perhaps it’s time to rethink your budgetary strategies And who knows? Maybe the cats are appreciating the hallucinogenic properties of their new food. Too bad we’ll never know!

[Pic via]