Any story involving animals immediately makes me sad.
It’s not their fault that some of them end up with bad owners who are irresponsible and they have to pay the price.
And that brings us to today’s story from Reddit’s “Am I the *******?” page!
The woman who wrote it explained that she shares a house with two other people.
AITA for refusing to look after my housemate’s cat and threatening to take it to an animal shelter?
“I (22F) house-share with Mia 22F and Amy 23F.
We all finished uni courses last year. I am doing a postgrad course at the uni, they entered employment. We got together via mutual friends as we were all looking for a rental. I spend most of my time at uni or working in my room.
A new pet came into the house.
Six weeks after we moved in Mia came in from visiting her parents with a cat in tow that was hers when she lived at home before uni. She hadn’t been able to have it at uni so her parents had kept it.
I was not happy.
I don’t like cats due to a bad childhood experience and was annoyed she hadn’t discussed it with us.
She just said the landlord didn’t mind and that it would be no trouble. Amy likes cats and was pleased so I was in the minority.
For the sake of harmony I didn’t make a big issue of it, I was just clear that I would not do anything for the cat at any point.
Mia had to leave for a while…
Few weeks ago Mia announced that she had a 3 month work placement in another part of the country.
She would get free accommodation so wasn’t moving out permanently.
She’d still pay her share of rent but couldn’t take the cat.
Again I was not happy, but Amy said she would look after it.
Mia left 3 weeks ago.
And now the cat is her responsibility.
Shortly after, Amy got ill with health issues I won’t go into here. It means she has to move in with her parents temporarily.
She left a week ago and will be away until after Christmas so I’m left on my own in the house with the cat.
I immediately called Mia and said she had to sort someone else to take the cat.
She said that was unfair of me because she hadn’t known Amy wouldn’t be around and there was no one else around locally who could take it.
I said that was not my problem, it is not my cat.
She said to give her a few days.
This cat ain’t easy…
The cat is not “no trouble.”
It is needy. It goes outside but whines by the back door after being out for an hour or so.
If I let it in, it’s not long before it’s whining outside my bedroom door.
I have loads of uni work to do and this is distracting.
It did this even when Mia and Amy were here but it’s worse now that they’ve gone.
I’ve been feeding it but don’t like having to do this.
The food stinks the place out and is running low.
She made a phone call.
It’s a week since I spoke to Mia and no sign of the cat going anywhere.
I message her daily about it but she just fobs me off.
In desperation, I called her parents directly to ask them to come and get it.
They were annoyed at me and said why couldn’t I just look after it. They couldn’t just drop everything and come for the cat as they live over three hours away.
She gave them an ultimatum.
I said that unless someone picked the cat up within 48 hours (which is how much food it has left here) I will take it to the local animal shelter and tell them the full story – that its owner has effectively abandoned the cat into the care of someone who does not want to be responsible for it.
Mia has blown up my phone since then, calling me an *******.
AITA?”
Let’s see what Reddit users had to say.
This person said she’s NTA and explained why.
Another reader made a good point.
This individual said her roommate’s behavior wasn’t cool.
Another reader was lucky to have a reliable mother.
And this Reddit user left a job because of something like this.
I’m on the roommate’s side with this one.
She didn’t agree to take care of it, and it’s being forced upon her.
The parents really should have stepped up on this one.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parent’s 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.