Deciding to keep a stray animal can feel rewarding at first, but that can change quickly once responsibility sets in.

Imagine your wife brought home a stray dog and decided to keep it, even though you said it wasn’t a good idea. Now, what would you do if she started expecting you to clean up the dog’s messes? Would you help out? Or would you refuse because you didn’t want the dog to begin with?

In the following story, one husband finds himself in this situation and puts his foot down. Here’s the full scoop.

AITA for refusing to care for a dog my wife brought home and unanimously decided to keep?

So, a month ago, my wife found a dog on the streets. It was raining, and she sent me a picture of an ugly dog, all muddy, and said she was bringing it home to find its owners.

We posted on the neighborhood apps, and took it to the local shelter, and they didn’t find a microchip, they told us they were at capacity, and gave us a leash for it and sent us home with no further guidance on what to do next.

We called all the shelters and rescue places in our area, and they all kept saying the same thing: “at capacity,” to “keep it for a few days,” and to keep trying to find its owners.

His wife decided to keep the dog anyway.

On the neighborhood app, no one offered help; they just kept saying things like “poor baby” and “she chose you, so you should keep her”.

At this point, it’s been a month, and my wife said that if she doesn’t find the owners, she’s keeping her.

I said I didn’t want a dog, but she said we were “keeping it anyway.”

I told her she’d better do 100% of the work cleaning after it, and the vet bills, food, and grooming were coming out of her fun money. She agreed, but said I’d “warm up to her.”

He still refuses to help with the dog.

Well, I haven’t, and we’ve been arguing about the dog because she’s frustrated that I’m not cleaning up after it, even though I told her that would be the case.

If I’m eating food and step away for a minute to the restroom, it’ll jump on the table and eat the food, then throw up, and I don’t clean the mess. The dog gets diarrhea, I don’t clean up.

The other day, my wife got mad because she took the dog out, and forgot to bring her in, and I was in the living room hearing the dog bark and never let her in. My wife said it was “freezing,” but it was 59 degrees outside.

Now, they can’t agree on anything.

The last incident, wife let her out of the kennel, and she jumped on the bed and stained it.

I told her to wash the sheets because that’s disgusting, and she looked mad at me for telling her.

She said I was being “cruel” and needed to start helping with her. I said no, that I had never agreed to keeping the dog, and it’s 100% her problem.

AITA?

Wow! This whole situation sounds very stressful for both of them.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit think it should be handled.

Here’s advice from a dog person.

According to this comment, the wife is being defensive.

This reader gets it.

This person thinks they need to talk.

An ultimatum is in order. She brought the dog home, and he had clear rules. Now, he should make her choose him or the dog.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.