When the vacation ended, silence greeted her instead of gratitude. Calls went unanswered, messages disappeared, and a block on social media sealed the betrayal. Alone with the unwanted burden, she faced not just a dog left behind, but the shattering of trust and the cold sting of abandonment.
I’m a 35-year-old female. I have a friend, 32 female, who asked me to dog sit her poodle for two weeks while she was on vacation with her husband. I had some rough patches with this friend before, but she paid me before having to take care of her dog, and my house is big, so I agreed.
I really like dogs; I have had many throughout the years, and now I have one good golden boy named Dorado. But I really hated this dog. It peed everywhere, was destructive, picked fights with Dorado, felt entitled to my food while having a full bowl untouched, and even defecated on my bed.
Out of all the places it could defecate, it decided to shit on MY BED.
After two weeks, I called my friend, expecting her to be back in town and come get her little monster back. She never answered, no text, no social media, nothing. After trying to reach her on Instagram, I got BLOCKED.
I waited, waited for her to appear in front of my door, but that never happened. I called her husband; he also ghosted me.
After 10 days of being ghosted, I had enough. I went to a shelter and dropped the dog there. They won’t accept pet dogs into the shelter, so I said it was a stray dog. I finally had peace at home, and one week later, my friend called me, saying that she was coming back for her dog.
I blew up at her, asking where the hell she was, and that I got tired of waiting, so I dropped the dog at a shelter. She started fighting with me over the phone, saying that it was unfair, that I was putting her dog in danger, and that I could have just waited a little longer.
I sent her the shelter address, and some days later, she said that she was going to sue me because she had to buy her dog back (this shelter doesn’t sell dogs; maybe she was charged an adoption fee).
She is making my life so much more dramatic right now. Maybe I should have waited a few more days? Was I wrong for what I did?
Conclusion
The original poster experienced significant stress and damage due to the difficult behavior of the dog left in her care, compounded by the friend’s complete disappearance, which escalated the conflict beyond a simple favor gone wrong. Her final action of surrendering the dog at a shelter stemmed from feeling abandoned and overwhelmed by the ongoing responsibility and disrespect shown by the friend.
Given the friend’s act of ghosting and the severe disruption caused by the pet, was the poster justified in surrendering the animal after waiting a significant, self-imposed deadline, or did relinquishing the dog, regardless of the circumstances, violate the core trust established when agreeing to the favor?
Here’s how people reacted:
Your “friend” is an asshole for saying 2 weeks and then apparently extending that without saying a word to you, and refusing to respond/blocking you when you did try to reach her after the original 2 weeks.
This is a tough position to be put in. I’m leaning toward NTA because you tried to reach her about her dog and she wouldn’t respond. I don’t know if she gave you veterinarian info in case of emergency/illness, but if she did, I would have taken the dog there to be boarded instead of to a shelter after the 2 weeks was up.
Yes, the friend is shitty as well, no doubt, but throwing a dog who has known love and who is part of a family, to a shelter as a “fuck you” move is shitty as well.
I think both of you are assholes.
So NTA. Let her take you to court. Print out all of the texts and emails you and they sent. Then counter sue for the damages the dog caused, food, boarding (say $50/day after the initial 2 weeks) + court fees. Slam dunk case in small claims court, if you ask me.
Block them on all social media, your phone, your email, and your life. They are users. They just wanted an extra 17 days without that terror.
Does this help? NTA
Yeah thast what your entitled friend wanted you to do with no extra payment, no notification, no pre-arrangement, no excuses and no apology. What an entitled ass. You did what you needed to do. Hopefully that will teach her. NTA
Poetic Justice. You waited much longer than I would have. Blocked me from communicating, I would had held out 48 hours, MAX.
Block her and be done with it.
NTA
BTW, what was the date that your friend said she would be back in town? Or did the two of you plan on “whenever”.
But I’m really curious, did she ever address why you couldn’t get in touch with them or why they were 10 days late?
she activeley stopped you from informing her you were going to do so so there was no way you could have given her warning, this is all on her for not sticking to the original aggreement
You are NTA. Cut off all contact with her and her husband.