" Do you have any pets?” asked Max.

“Just a hamster. We used to have a cat, though.”

“We have a cat,” said Amanda. “Her name is Priscilla. She’s a snow-white Persian and she cost four hundred dollars.”

Four hundred dollars for a cat? I thought. Boy, you could get one free at a shelter. And you could certainly spend four hundred dollars on better things, like groceries. "

― Ann M. Martin , Poor Mallory! (Baby-Sitters Club #39: Collector's Edition)