The worst Memorial Day ever!!

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Well, I thought I was loosing my little bichon yesterday. I had set my alarm for 4am yesterday morning as I had food to deliver to a job and still had last minute touches to put on. Usually, when I get up, no matter what the hour, both my dogs come barreling out of the bedroom and go to the back door to go out. Yesterday, they didn't and I thought "Wow, they are actually going to keep sleeping which was ok with me cause its not just letting them out, then they want to eat and rough house a little then they want their real outing, the walk..So I just kept working, thinking nothing really much of it. About 1 hour went by and they still hadn't come out so i went in to check on them. I almost dropped dead when I put the light on. There was blood all over the floor, I mean lots of blood and my litte bichon was laying on her little bed, panting real hard and looking very confused..I immediately go into panic mode. I wake Jim and tell him come on come on, get up, we have to get Lambchop to the vet NOW..Not even thinking about the holiday in my panic, i wrap her in a towel and get in the car and we go speeding off to the vet. We get there and just as we were pulling into the lot, it dawns on me.."THE HOIDAY!!" Sure enough, they were closed but had an emergency number posted on the door. I quickly call the number and get a very rude girl who informs me that their office is swamped (Its not even 7am by the way) and that they only have one Dr on and at least 10 emergenices in front of me. Now I'm freaking out..My dog is beoming lathargic and still bleeding. She tells me of another hospita that is open and rather than call there and take the chance of another shut out, we just go there. When we arrived, they immediately took her to the back to see what was going on and to stabalize her. They too, are swamped..This is so weird..Two vets, so busy before sunup. I couldn't believe it..They got her coterized and then said she is stable for now and put us in a little room where we sat for the next 2 hours, waiting on a Dr.. To make a very long story short, when the Dr. FINALLY examined her, she tells me that they will have to sedate her and starts throwing forms at me to sign, in case she dies under anasthesia. I'm freaking out as you can imagine, but have no choice but to sign so that they can treat my dog. 2 more hours pass and they tell me that she has a tumor that has ruptured and will require surgery. Then it starts about the money..Its all about the money..Nothing else happens until you agree on the money..the money, the money, the money..She gives me an "estimate" of 600.00 and what choice do I have..Oh yeah, she tells me, "Well of course, we could always "let her go" if the money is a problem..WHAT??? Now I'm pissed!!! How cold she sounded..These are my babies..I love my dogs more than anything and the thought that she would just say..Well, we can always let her go infuriated me. So, she said there were several cases in front of us and to go home and she would call me later. I called down there at 9pm last night as I still had heard nothing and was told that the Dr. was in another emergency surgery and they would have her call me back. She calls back at 11:30 last night and tells me I can come get her in about 1 hour. Of course I'm relieved that the dog is ok, but where I'm going to pull this money from this month is beyond me..I put it on American Express which of course has to be paid right away..so, I'm in a bind..I can't believe how expensive health care is for animals, just like people. I also have to have prescriptions filled today which God only knows how much thats going to be..I guess I should have looked into pet insurance a long time ago..Do any of you have pet insurance..Is it expensive and what does it cover..Of course its too late for this incident but who knows when something else, God forbid, could happen..I live on a very limited income and have no room in my budget for disasters. I should have thought about all this before I rescued these two dogs but its too late for all that now. Hind sight is 20/20 and is doing me no good now. Yes, it was a bad labor day. A friend went to my house and picked up the food for the job I had to deliver and took care of that for me so at least I was able to salvage that. It wasn't a large enough job however to pay for this crisis. With the economy as it is, and Jim making so much less than we are used to, how do we handle these little emergenies in our lives? I dont have credit cards with the exception of AE because I refuse to pay that ridiculous high interet and as far as a savings account goes, yeah right..save what?? Don't really know how I'm going to work my way out of this one but my dog is ok an thats all that really matters to me right now..