Built out of love for a cat named Sita

Sita is one of our three house cats.

She is a black domestic shorthair, about 12 years old, and she came into our lives as a Christmas gift.

We found her at the Humane Society in Corona, California. At the time, we had dogs in the house, so I knew we needed a cat with spirit. A cat who could hold her own. A cat who would not be intimidated.

When I reached in to pet her, she bit me.

The girl at the Humane Society immediately apologized, but I stopped her and said, “I’ll take her. She’s perfect.”

And she was.

Sita had attitude from the very beginning. She was tough, confident, and full of personality. But over the years, she became so much more than the little black cat who bit me that day. She became part of our home, part of our routine, and part of our family.

Recently, here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sita started sneezing.

At first, we thought it was seasonal allergies. It seemed minor. A sneeze here, a little discomfort there. Nothing that felt like an emergency.

But over the next few days, everything changed.

Her eyes began to water. The clear discharge from her nose turned green. Then one of her eyes became severely swollen. There was pus, and the smell made us fear she might have an abscess. She became lethargic, and suddenly the strong little cat we knew was clearly in trouble.

That is when worry turned into urgency.

We started searching for veterinary care, hoping to find someone who could see her quickly and treat her affordably. What we found was stressful, confusing, and frustrating. Some hospitals could see her in four or five days. Others were booked two or three weeks out. When your pet is sick and declining, that kind of wait feels impossible.

Then came the issue of cost.

In Albuquerque, veterinary care can be difficult to access, expensive, and unclear. Prices vary widely. Appointment availability varies widely. Quality of communication varies widely. And when you are scared for your animal, you are forced to make decisions quickly without the information you truly need.

We were working with a fixed budget, and we explained that clearly. Every dollar mattered. Every decision mattered. Every hour mattered.

But through Sita’s care, we saw firsthand how little transparency exists. We experienced real differences between veterinary hospitals, not only in pricing, but in communication, organization, and quality of care. Even small details, like whether a medication or eye drops were properly included and explained, mattered. When your pet is sick, those details are not small. They are part of making sure your money is being used in the best possible way to help the animal you love.

That experience stayed with us.

Because when your pet needs care, you should not have to guess.

You should not have to call hospital after hospital, compare prices blindly, wait days or weeks for answers, and hope you are making the right choice. You should not have to walk into a veterinary hospital without knowing whether they will respect your budget, communicate clearly, or provide care that matches the urgency of the situation.

Sita’s illness showed us a real problem.

Veterinary medicine needs more transparency. Pet owners need better information before they are in crisis. Families need a way to understand what care may cost, what others have experienced, and how veterinary hospitals compare.

That is why we created VetCostIQ.

VetCostIQ is a veterinary price transparency platform designed to help pet owners make more informed decisions before they choose a veterinary hospital. The app allows people to upload invoices, rate hospitals, and share their experiences so other pet owners can better understand pricing, quality of care, and what to expect.

This app was inspired by Sita — a little black cat who bit me the first time I met her and somehow made it completely obvious that she belonged with us.

Her story began with toughness.

But VetCostIQ was born from vulnerability, fear, love, and the realization that pet owners deserve better when their animals need help most.

Because pets like Sita are family.

And families deserve transparency.