An animal shelter spends $3.00 per day to care for each cat and $3.50 per day to care for each dog. Caleb noticed that the shelter spent $95.50 caring for cats and dogs on Monday. Caleb found a record showing that there were a total of 28 cats and dogs on Monday. How many cats were at the shelter on Monday?

5 cats

Step-by-step explanation:

23 cats

Step-by-step explanation:

let x be the number of cats at the shelter on Monday

and let y be the number of dogs at the shelter on Monday.

Now we have two unknown variable x and y so we need at least two equations to solve for both x and y.

The first equation can be written from the statement "total of 28 cats and dogs on Thursday", which converts to:

x+y=28

The second equation can be determined from the sentence "the shelter spent $95.50 caring for cats and dogs on Monday". Also we know that the shelter spends $3/day for cats and $3.5/day for dogs which means 3*x (as x is the total number of cats) and 3.5*y (as y is the total number of dogs on Thursday) and we also know that the shelter spend a total of $95.50 which means that:

3x+3.5y=95.5

Now from first equation we can find the value of x which is x=28-y and then we replace this value of x in the second equation and solve for y.

3 (28-y) + 3.5y=95.50

84-3y+3.5y=95.50

84+0.5y=95.50

0.5y=11.5

y=11.5/0.5

y=23

Now to find x (the number of cats on Monday), we put this value of y in the first equation which gives us:

x=28-23

x=5