Dallas ? Debra Gwathney spent her $600 stimulus check on her three cats.

Summer Rose took on a second job to pay for her pug’s hip replacement.

And Christine Lewis says she dishes out more on her beagle than her friends do on their toddlers.

Quirky, neighborhood cat-lady types? The kind who dress their animals in knitted sweaters and feed them organic cheese-nip biscuits?

Far from it. But the three Dallas women are part of a growing legion of pet owners around the country choosing to invest in their animals’ well-being even as their own health-care costs are rising.

“If you are an animal lover, it’s worth it,” said Rose, 30, as she waited for her dog to get $300 in shots at Hillside Veterinary Clinic in Dallas.

She has shelled out at least $12,000 on a litany of dogs and cats in the past decade.

And that’s only scratching the surface.

Even with the latest accounts of abandoned pets and packed animal shelters, owners are expected to spend a record $43 billion on their pets this year, $2 billion more than last year, according to a survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

About 67 percent of U.S. households own a pet, and chances are they spend half their pet costs on vet visits and over-the-counter medicine, the survey said.

“Pets don’t live in the back yard anymore,” said Dr. Bonnie Beaver, a professor of small-animal medicine at Texas A&M University. “They live in the house. Their role in our lives has changed. Some say they’re family members.”

This means pet owners are making more sacrifices, especially since veterinary advancements in the past two decades have made health care pricier, Beaver said.

“It parallels human medicine,” she said.

Today, CAT scans actually include cats, and doggie sonograms are routine.

But although pet owners – many of whom are young professionals without children or empty nesters who have replaced their kids with animals – are willing to pay for major procedures, veterinarians worry they will cut down on basic care with the economic downturn.

“They are shying away from preventive things that will cost them more money in the long run,” said Bernadine Cruz, an official of the American Veterinary Medical Association.