When I started doing the blog about Cookies cruciate ligament rupture the idea was to cover every aspect of our experience in the hope that it may be a useful source of information in the future for people. I wanted to look at everything related to this major surgery from diagnosis and treatment to recovery and her long term quality of life. Now three weeks post op she is progressing well albeit a few hiccups along the way.

One of our biggest concerns when the injury first happened was a financial one because we knew straight away that this type of surgery is not cheap. Cookie is insured but that old adage of 'You never know how good an insurance company is until you make a claim' was at the forefront of my mind when I downloaded the claim form and handed it over to Liverpool University small animal hospital on our first visit.

In October we had got our renewal notice through from our then insurers More Than. Despite never claiming with them our premium had doubled. I really dislike chopping and changing with pet insurance but in this case I had also been considering a better policy for a while so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. We had a £4000 a year annual policy for both Monty and Cookie but I really wanted to look at lifetime cover and also to see if we could get a more realistic accident or illness amount.

After trawling though numerous companies I came across the Insurance Emporium. After putting in Monty and Cookie's details it came back with a premium of £28 per month each for a lifetime cover of £8000 per condition. This was about the same as we'd been paying for the previous annual cover before the price hike so I was very interested. I must admit I put the details in twice just to make sure, but it came back the same again. As good as it was I have to be honest and say that this was a name new to me so I really wanted to double check. I put in a search for reviews and they came out very well and so I decided to go ahead.

On the 2nd of November our new policy started and on the 12th of December Cookie spun round in the garden to go the toilet and the rest is history. After years of never claiming within six weeks of taking out a policy with a new company we had no experience of we were facing a major injury and an equally major expense. The claim form was handed over and the operation went ahead because of that we had no hesitation. We honestly believe this is the best option to get Cookie a good quality of life and if the insurance was a problem then we'd have to find a way of raising the money.

We couldn't see where the problem would be but we'd had a previous bad experience and I guess we were taking nothing for granted. Last week I had an email from the Insurance emporium saying that due to previous conditions they wouldn't cover anything in the future for eyes or eyelids. The were obviously looking at previous medical history which is fair enough and totally expected. I actually quite liked being told upfront where we stood for future claims s there is a sense of transparency which is often lacking within this industry. Two later we got an email to say the payment was being sent to Liverpool hospital minus the excess and our agreed 5% contribution and that was that.

The speed that the claim was dealt with was certainly a weight off our mind and it was one very big thing less to worry about. We have a few more parts of the claim to come but I have to say so far the whole experience with the Insurance Emporium has been really positive, straightforward and uncomplicated.

Obviously I can't say that every claim will be dealt with the same, but going on our experience it would be hard not to recommend them as pretty decent option if you're in the process of shopping for pet insurance......we'll keep you updated of course.