When a gracious friend offers to host you during a natural disaster, most people would react with gratitude.

But believe it or not, other’s first instinct is to nitpick their friend’s hosting abilities and cause a huge scene.

For one host, offering shelter during a hurricane turned into a storm of accusations over their beloved cats and a guest with allergies.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for not getting rid of my cats after a hurricane?

In July, Hurricane Beryl came through, and I (F, 25) miraculously never lost power.

Because of this, I kept my door open to friends and their families who were less fortunate.

I had no issues until my friend Joe (M, 25) came with his girlfriend Emily (F, mid-20s).

This particular homeowner was also the owner of two affectionate cats.

I have two cats: An older one who stayed under my bed the entire time and a one-year-old who loves people.

The younger cat was out and about, giving kisses and jumping from lap to lap, but if someone pushed her off, she would just move on.

Unfortunately, one of her newfound house guests was allergic.

This became an issue because Joe is allergic to cats—the runny nose and red, itchy eyes type of allergic.

He didn’t mention this until I noticed him avoiding my cat and asked if he was okay.

That’s when he told me about his allergy, but said he didn’t want to be a bother and that he “knew I had cats and still made the choice to take up my offer.”

The host tried to offer accommodations, but Joe assured them he could look after himself and he wasn’t worried.

I assured him it was no bother and offered allergy meds and to lock my cat in my bedroom.

Joe insisted it would be fine, as long as she wasn’t crawling all over him.

The rest of the guests kept my cat occupied, so Joe just had a few sniffles.

Having done their due diligence, they didn’t see much of a problem and they went on with their lives.

I offered multiple times to lock up my cat, but he continued to insist it was fine and said I had already done enough.

Emily stayed quiet during this time and made no effort to keep my cat away from Joe if she came near him.

That is, until a different side of the story came out several weeks later.

Fast forward to a BBQ I attended with Joe and Emily.

The topic of Hurricane Beryl came up, and Joe jokingly said that thanks to me, the hardest part for him was “having a cute cat right in front of him that he wasn’t allowed to pet.”

Emily started glaring as he said this.

Someone asked her if she was okay, and she just went off on me.

She accused me of being “cruel” for forcing Joe into an allergic reaction when they were already suffering.

She claimed I didn’t care about helping people because I was willing to put Joe in a position where he had to choose between being out in a hurricane or risking anaphylaxis.

Neither the host nor Joe could believe what they were hearing.

Joe stood there with a look I could only describe as gobsmacked.

The host’s other friends tried to stand up for them, but Emily pushed on with her accusations.

Another friend spoke up and pointed out that I had offered to lock my cat in my bedroom multiple times, and Joe insisted it wasn’t necessary.

Emily then doubled down, saying that of course, Joe insisted — it’s what anyone would do out of politeness.

She argued that I shouldn’t have even asked and should have automatically locked the cats up.

She went on to say that the “gracious” thing to do would have been to lock both cats in my car while everyone was over.

Things kept getting worse and worse.

At the suggestion of locking my cats in my car post-hurricane, my heart sank.

The group became more upset with Emily, and a heated back-and-forth ensued.

One friend accused Emily of doing nothing to help Joe herself and pointed out that she could have asked me to lock the cat up if she felt that strongly.

Emily fired back that it wasn’t her responsibility since she wasn’t the host and that I should have been more respectful and proactive.

Finally, Joe dragged her away, as she continued hurling insults.

After several minutes of arguing, Joe finally snapped out of his apparent shock and dragged Emily away, apologizing for her behavior.

He reassured me that he had no issue, that it wasn’t that serious, and that he was still grateful for my help.

As they left, Emily yelled out once more, accusing me of being “cruel” for putting my cats above everyone else in need.

It’s an awful feeling when your kindness is met with hostility.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter hopes Emily will stop coming around some day real soon.

It’s clear to this user that Emily doesn’t actually know what she’s talking about.

Another commenter elaborates.

There’s absolutely no excuse for Emily’s behavior.

Emily’s fury revealed her priorities were out of whack, to say the least.

Even the utmost kindness can’t weather the weight of unreasonable expectations.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.