How do I help?

A good friend, old and true, is having money troubles. Her ex-husband is up to date with child support but a few months late in his payments to the kids' doctors and school. Her payments on the new used car don't fit as easily into her monthly budget as she thought they would. Neither she nor the kids have dental insurance, so she has quite a bit of toothy debt on plastic.

To make matters worse, she feels like a fiscal crimnal because the man she is involved with and desperately wants to marry does not believe in accumulating credit card debt. (Because he's been "cleaned out" by two ex-wives; a man with two divorces behind him may not have money issues, but I bet he's carrying baggage of the emotional variety.)

And now her cat Callie has resumed urinating on the furniture. "Callie's got to go." I asked her what she was going to do with Cal. After all, shelters are overcrowded and prospective owners never come in looking for overweight adult cats who pee on the furniture. She said she didn't know. We both know what she's going to do with poor Callie. I asked her to please not do anything until she takes Callie to a different vet. Her current vet dismisses Callie's behavior as purely behavioral, and while I know that cats are finicky critters, I believe there must be a solveable problem at the root of this. (My cat Charlotte peed on the carpet for months and months until the vet discovered an internal infection and I installed a second litter box.)

Karen says that she simply cannot afford to take Callie to the vet at all.

I want to help. I make more money than she does and I have a very strong credit rating. I get tons of balance transfer offers in the mail every week. I'm thinking of lending her money that way and letting her pay it off according to the terms of the promotional offer.

I realize that will just be more debt, but I'm quite sure it will be at a more attractive interest rate than she's paying. I wish I could just give her the money outright, but I can't afford to do that right now. I have more debt, and less in retirement accounts, than is wise for a woman my age. Digging myself in deeper to help her just doesn't make sense. Plus it would send my long-term goals, renovating my kitchen and bathroom, even further into the distance.

And I can't take Callie. That would be 4 cats in a two bedroom condo. Aside from the fact that I'd be in violation of village ordinance, it would further cement my reputation as crazy cat lady.

So we'll see what this week's mail brings, credit-offer-wise. If it makes sense for her, I hope she'll take me up on it. This is what friends are for, right?