Cost doesn't seem much for small dogs as long as they don't get sick or hurt.
Lot's of dog parks have vets come and give vaccines for cheap prices on weekends. Be carefull with water bottles, dogs can eat the caps and get their digestive system blocked up. I'm in the habbit of just putting the cap in my pocket when I'm done with the bottle and letting the dog play with the empty bottle.
Chickens are kind of cool, they are real curious. We used to have some that would come peck at the screen door to try and get in and one would lay down next to the dog in the garage and sort of be companions.
We had a rat once that we'd let run loose sometimes and he was a real fun pet. Smarter than me in some ways and he had a personality. If I accidentally stepped on his tail he would chase me around trying to bite my foot.
Those ferrets rimind me of some sort of creature, maybe fishers?, that I saw while innertubing down a river this summer. They were black, about 2 feet tall, and stood tall on their back feet but could swim real good too. For some reason about 5 of them decided to swim after me while I was tubing.
They started getting close, swimming underwater and then lifting their heads out of the water looking at me. I started paddling faster since my butt was vulnerable in the middle of the inner tube and I didn't want one of those damn things suddenly biting a chunk out of it.
