Look, we all know pets are precious. But, if any of you are cat owners, you also probably know that cats are way better at fending for themselves than dogs.

But in this story, there’s a little bit of a gray area… if a cat has enough food on her plate for a couple of days, is it the petsitter’s responsibility to go back for an unexpected extra shift?

Let’s dig in.

AITA for refusing to travel an hour to feed my friend’s cat?

I, 27F, recently agreed to take care of my friend’s cat while she was away traveling for a few days.

We’re not really close friends, but she asked me because her apartment is close to my work, and I live an hour away from my office.

From last Wednesday to Saturday morning, I stayed at her place for cat sitting.

Convenient for everyone. What could go wrong?

I was happy to help because it was reduced commute for me and it’s not much work to take care of a cat.

She was supposed to be back Saturday night, and I left enough food for the day for the cat as I was leaving around noon.

Around 6PM as I was having dinner with friends at a restaurant back in my city, my friend called me to tell me that her flight had been cancelled.

Ah bummer… what’s OP gonna do now?

They rebooked her flight so she will arrive Sunday noon instead of Saturday night.

She asked me if I could come back to her apartment to feed the cat, as I am the only one with the spare key to her apartment.

I told her I am in the middle of dinner and we are going to a party afterwards, nothing bad will happen to the cat if she skips a meal or two until tomorrow noon.

Hm. What’s the friend gonna say? Cat got her tongue?

So I can’t drop everything now and travel 2 hours (back and forth) to feed the cat. I did offer, if for whatever reason her flight is further delayed, then I will come on Sunday to feed the cat.

Then she told me she can’t believe I would let a poor innocent animal starve and suffer, just to be able to party and enjoy myself.

She said this is animal abuse and she will have to report me.

Uh, seems extreme. Why is she throwing such a hissy fit?

She hung up on me, and then she sent me a series of text that switches from begging for me to go to her apartment to cursing me that I am a cruel animal abuser.

I ignored all her messages and today I gave her key to a common friend so she can get the key back, as I don’t feel comfortable talking to her anymore unless she reaches out with an apology.

A part of me does feel bad about what happened though, maybe she was just paranoid about her cat suffering?

I mean she’s paranoid about something. This is unbalanced behavior. But should OP have just gone back to feed the cat?

So what do you think….

AITA for refusing to travel an hour to feed her cat in this situation??

Cats supposedly have nine lives, so missing one meal shouldn’t kill this one. But is OP in the wrong?

Let’s ask the comments section.

This person says, would you wanna skip two meals?

Someone else is like, you had other plans, NTA.

Another person says the friend is being ridiculous.

This poster says YTA cuz it’s about the cat.

And this cat lover says, NTA, cat’s fine.

What’s the big me-ow?

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