Family Had To Put Their Dog To Sleep Because He Had An Aggressive Form Of Cancer, But When They Were On The Way To The Vet, An HOA Board Member Stopped Them

Jayne Elliott

10 minutes ago

Shutterstock/Reddit

If you’ve ever had a pet, you know that they become a member of your family, and losing a pet is as sad as losing a human member of your family.

In this story, one family has to make the hard decision to put their dog to sleep, but what’s even worse is an annoying HOA board member and the worst timing ever.

Keep reading for all the details.

HOA member ignored personal space

I really didn’t know how to phrase the title so it may be misleading.

A month ago my husband found a largish lump on our 9 year old Russell Terrier’s face. We took her to the vet who told us that there was nothing that could be done for her.

I was not content with that so we got a second opinion that ended up reflecting the first.

This is so sad!

That vet told us that no matter how early we detected it, there was nothing we could have done short of jaw removal.

She said that our pup had days maybe weeks, as it was a very aggressive cancer.

She gave us a couple of prescriptions for pain and inflammation, which perked our dog up and made her playful again.

When it seemed like the medicine was no longer working, we decided it was time.

Being preoccupied by cleaning could be a nice distraction.

The HOA had hired a contractor to do siding replacement and painting but our back patio was a disaster so a couple days before they were going to get to our unit the HOA told my husband he needed to clean up the back patio.

He spent the entirety of the day cleaning up the patio but we had made the appointment with the vet for 4:00 so he had to take a break.

His plan was to finish up the little bit that still needed doing that evening.

Fwiw, it took him less than 15 min to finish up that night.

It was really bad timing.

As my husband, our 10 year old, and I were all walking to the car with our dog, a woman I didn’t recognize approached us. She had a smallish dog with her so I thought she was wanting to introduce our dogs to each other, which I thought was sweet.

The first thing out of her mouth was something along the lines of her being on the board and noticing our back patio wasn’t done ( which she couldn’t possibly have known unless she opened our privacy fence gate).

I stepped in front of my husband (who had very clearly been crying and my 10 year old who was actively crying) and told her that now was not a good time as we we’re on our way to the vet to have our dog put to sleep.

I honestly can’t remember how she responded exactly (the adrenaline head kicked in) but it was something along the lines of “well the Workmen will be here tomorrow”

The woman didn’t know when to back off.

My husband said he would be finishing it and I repeated that now is really not a good time.

She said “well I’ll have to contact someone”

And I cut her off and said “I don’t give a damn, like I said now is not a good time. We have to take our dog to go DIE, BACK OFF”

I sidestepped her to get to our van and said very loudly “Jesus Christ woman, read the freaking room for hecks sake” and we promptly left.

She’s not sure what she should do next.

I texted another HOA member who said to put the details into an email but now I’m wondering if it’s worth it.

I feel kind of like my language sort of relinquishes my moral high ground (I regret nothing!).

Also, I can’t see what recourse there would be since being a decent human being isn’t a prerequisite having a board position.

I feel so sad about their dog. As a fellow dog owner, you’d think the HOA lady would’ve had some compasion.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person reassures her that she’s not overreacting.