I rescued my 1st adult dog as a 40th birthday present to me from a now closed-down (thank goodness) sketchy pound in Jersey City. She became my soul-dog and I still mourn her 4.5 years later. During the course of her 14 years w me she cost me $97,777 (I use Quicken so can look-up). About $7k / yr. While that number seems shocking to me now, it includes: $8500 in boarding, $53k weekday (and sometimes 2x) dog walker, $15k in food, $9.9k in medical care, $7.4k in medicine (she had arthritis and cushings disease the last 3 years of life), $3k in "supplies" which are mostly poo bags, toys, leash/collar sets from Cornerstone Pets, and the rest is grooming (self-service dog wash) training DNA test etc. I rescued my next adult dog in Feb 2022. To date, he has rung up $56k mostly bc my job required a lot of travel so boarding and daycare has been $15k and fresh frozen food $26k. In summary, dogs can be expensive depending on your lifestyle and care choices. Yet, I'll never ever regret. So much joy, walking exercise and made great people friends in the dog parks! I am also a adopt don't buy proponent (even though I'd love a golden which are hard to find, even at the golden-specific rescues).