The adoption fee is not that bad IMO the adoption center needs money to keep doing it's good work. I learned this while I worked at Petco. Also The bigger bill would be if the adopted animal was ever to need medical care. Been to a vet lately ? A vet bill for even something simple can be at least 100 bucks. My cats would get UTI once in a while and that was normally about 130 for exam and shot and medicine. One cat once needed blood work and when all said and done was just over 300 bucks.