One Saturday afternoon, my partner and I were sitting at home, reading through the local paper. Advertised was a litter of 8 week old kittens, for twenty pounds each. I begged and pleaded with my partner to buy me one of the kittens. He informed me to take into consideration, the costs of owning a pet. I thought to myself, what is twenty pounds and £2.50 a week on food. Never did I think it would be the icing on the cake for my debt

So we bought one of the kittens and named him Rolo. All went well, until I took him to the vets for a free kitten check-up. The vets then informed me that I will have to pay £70 for his vaccination jabs (and £40 every year), also to pay £50 for spaying. This was a bit of a shock, but hay ho, not that expensive in the grand scheme of things.

A terrible thing happened one night, Rolo came home limping and in pain, I assumed he had been hit by a car. I called the emergency vet line and took Rolo in around 11pm. I had a call the next day to inform me that he had shattered his shoulder and would need an operation to fix it; I didn’t hesitate to say yes.

Three days later I went to pick Rolo up and my bill, the grand total was £1250 and no I didn’t have pet insurance. Already struggling with my current outgoings, I defaulted on payments and it was passed into the hands of debt collectors.

My debts exceeded £15,000 in total, so I was told that an IVA was be a more suitable alternative to bankruptcy, the benefits of an IVA when compared to Bankruptcy are many, but I spoke to a trained expert to find out which was the best Debt solutions for me.

Life throws unexpected things at you, so at least there are companies out there than can help you stand up and fight another day.