Our rescue dog, Scout, is six, we think, and very well-loved. Was I wrong to cancel his insurance? The renewal notice last summer took his premiums up from £23 to £30 a month. Once, they cost just £9.

By comparison, my wife and I pay £25 a month to insure both of our lives. Can I really justify spending more on the dog?

Before I automatically renewed the policy, I wanted to understand what £360 a year actually provides, and if I even had the right type of policy.

I also wondered if I should bother with pet insurance at all.

It may sound reckless, but I'm not alone. I have many conversations with dog walkers and increasingly I'm told why those owners are choosing to "self-insure" - tucking away the money saved on premiums to cover medical emergencies.

There is plenty of evidence online, too.

Jon Courtney, in Cheshire, recently posted his experience of M&S Bank's pet cover. Premiums for his pet, aged 10, had reached £2,552, up from £1,647 last year and £1,098 the year before.

A customer for a decade, he has paid nearly £5,300 in just three years.

Another aggrieved customer, Sue Payne, 47, of Gomersal, West Yorkshire, had insured her 10-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Poppy, with M&S since birth.