It can be really concerning when your pet gets sick.
Especially when their vital care bills start piling up.
So it can be easy to try to find someone to blame when things go wrong, rather than just accepting that this is just one of the quirks of having a pet – usually a wonderful experience, but with the odd difficult circumstance too.
The guy in this story, though, is determined to find someone to blame.
Read on to find out how he decided that his dog walker should take the fall.
WIBTA to ask my dog walker to contribute to emergency vet bills?
I have a five year old cardigan corgi.
He’s an absolute unit, and as my friends say, he’s high in strength/constitution and low in intelligence/wisdom.
He often tries to eat things that aren’t safe for him.
Hiring a dog walker seemed like a good idea.
I live alone and hired a dog walker I found on Rover to visit him once a day during the work week.
Instead of going through the app, I agreed to pay her in cash.
She’s generally been great. But, we’ve had a few mishaps like her not telling me when my dog ate and tore up a wooden hand fan.
I’ve given her the benefit of the doubt because my dog loves her and enjoys his walks with her.
Read on to find out how this arrangement took a turn for the worse.
Last night, my dog vomited up five or so partially chewed, large, bright-orange seeds.
They are from the coontie plant and are in the same family as sago palms, which can be fatally toxic to dogs even in small amounts.
Unfortunately, they are part of the landscape in my “dog-friendly” apartment complex.
I decided not to wait it out and took my dog to the emergency vet.
They admitted him to critical care because the risk of him deteriorating was so high, even though he was in good spirits when I left him.
Uh-oh. Let’s see how things turned out when he spoke to the dog walker.
I messaged my dog walker to let her know what happened, and she insists she never saw him eat the seeds and that she tries to prevent him from eating things on the ground.
I know he did not eat the seeds on my watch, because I exclusively took him to the turf-only dog park yesterday, which isn’t near the toxic plants.
This emergency vet visit is costing thousands of dollars. I haven’t brought up the cost to her yet, but I’m considering requesting that she contributes to this huge expense?
The dog owner is torn about what to do.
I get it’s my dog, but also I have never let this happen on my watch.
I understand it was likely an honest mistake, but also I feel as though it’s really irresponsible to let someone’s dog eat random things off the ground, especially if you aren’t paying close attention.
AITA?
It’s horrible that the dog ate these toxic seeds, and it’s no wonder that the guy is upset – but can he be sure that it’s the dog walker’s fault?
Sometimes, huge bills is one of the occupational hazards of having pets.
Let’s see what the folks on Reddit thought about this.
This person thought that the dog was just as likely to have eaten the seeds on his owner’s watch as on the dog walker’s.
And others pointed out that training the dog not to eat non-food items was entirely the owner’s responsibility.
Meanwhile, this professional dog walker gave a clear opinion.
It’s not the dog walker’s fault that the dog is poorly trained.
If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.