Imagine seeing a neighborhood cat near your house. If you started leaving food out for him, would you let your nephew hang out with the cat while he ate, or would you feed the cat solo since that’s what the cat’s used to?

In this story, one man is in this situation, and he let’s the boy watch the cat eat his food. But the boy didn’t follow directions, and now the uncle is wondering if he overreacted.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA for not calling my nephew when it was time to feed the neighborhood cat because he scared him off the last time?

There’s a neighborhood cat who roams around our house (no collar or anything) whom my wife and I feed twice a day regularly.

The cat (not quite sure if its a male or a female but we’ve assumed male) even responds to a name we made out for him, Messy.

He knows to come to our kitchen door when its time for his meal.

His nephew was excited about Messy.

My sister and her kids have been visiting for the past few days. My nephew (8), whos a great respectful kid, was excited when we told him about Messy.

When it was time to feed him, I put his plate at the usual spot and kind of just had my nephew stand away near the door while Messy ate, and told my nephew to just watch him but don’t interrupt his meal and then I left.

A few minutes later he had come back to the living room and grumbled about how Messy didnt like being pet because he ran away when he tried to pet him.

I told him he shouldn’t have interrupted his meal, my sister agreed.

When I went outside, Messy hadnt finished his food.

He wanted to make sure Messy ate his food without being scared.

So yesterday when it was time to feed Messy, I just fed him without telling my nephew.

Later, when he asked, I said I’d fed him.

He complained that he wanted to be there.

I just said Messy might be spooked by him now and to we can see him later.

He’s not sure if he made the right deicison.

My sister didnt say anything then, but later when it was just us, she said he was really disappointed and he was 8 and made a mistake but he meant well.

I felt a bit bad too, I didn’t really mean it as a punishment but it might have seemed like one. AITA?

I get that the kid made a mistake and feels bad, but OP is more concerned about the cat eating and not being scared. Perhaps next time the boy needs to be supervised while watching the cat eat.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

I completely agree with this comment.

It’s about priorities.

Again, priorities!

This is a good point!

The poor cat should be able to eat in peace.

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.