Treats, walks, health policies.

Byline: Stacey Burling

Nov. 13--Money's a little tight right now for Fred Cratil as he and some relatives put the finishing touches on their new Italian restaurant.

The last thing he wants to do is worry about Bruno, his 6-year-old Cairn terrier. So when Cratil, who's working as a courier until the restaurant opens, made a delivery to the offices of Petplan near Philadelphia International Airport, he was an easy sell. He became one of the first to buy pet health insurance from Fetch Inc., which sells pet insurance policies under the name Petplan. Fetch, which started selling policies in July, was founded by Chris and Natasha Ashton, an English couple who discovered, while getting their MBAs at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, how expensive a pet's illness can be. Cratil now pays them about $270 a year so that any medical decision he makes about Bruno will be about the dog's health, not money.

Not that long ago, dogs lived in the backyard and owners considered it normal to put a pet to sleep if the vet bill was getting too high. Plus, vets could only do so much to help. Nowadays, dogs and cats are part of the family, and vets can do ...