His In-Laws Ignored His Dog-Sitting Instructions and Cost Him $2,000 in Vet Bills — When Their Puppy Needed $500 He Said No
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Watching someone else’s dog can get expensive when something goes wrong.
One man found that out while caring for his in-laws’ puppy during their vacation.
After the dog grabbed a bottle of medication, he rushed him to the vet and ended up with a $500 bill.
His in-laws immediately said they weren’t paying, which didn’t sit right with him.
After all, they made him cover a much larger vet bill when they ignored his instructions while watching his dogs.
Read on to see why he thinks they can’t have it both ways.
AITA for refusing to pay for IL’s dog’s vet bills while dog-sitting?
My partner (32F) and I (30M) are looking after her parents’ dogs while they are on vacation, one of which is a puppy.
In the chaos of getting the day started and out the door last weekend, he grabbed a bottle of meds off the counter and consumed them.
We quickly acted and brought him to the vet. He’s fine, just left with a $500 bill.
When we called her parents to let them know the situation, the first thing they said was, “We’re not paying for that,” which I was a little upset about.
Normally, he wouldn’t make a big deal.
If this was in a vacuum, I wouldn’t make it a big deal and cause everyone to be uncomfortable over $500.
The puppy is healthy.
I guess we should have known to move things off counters, so whatever, let’s move on. However, we had the exact same situation when we went on vacation, and they made us pay for it.
A few months ago, they looked after our dogs for us, who never have issues except for when they get fed near one another, so we put them in separate rooms and just sat with them while they finished and instructed them to do the same.
He doesn’t feel like the situations are the same.
However, when they fed them, they put them in the same room and just walked away from them.
The two got in a fight, and it cost $2,000 to get one of them stitched up, which I was totally okay with paying for.
I feel these are completely analogous situations. The humans should have known the dog they were supervising’s behavior and been responsible enough to manage the environment accordingly.
Either the actual owner should be paying the vet bill or the person who was responsible for causing the vet visit, no?
AITA?
Yikes. It’s easy to see why he feels that way, but the situations are quite similar.
Let’s take a look at what the folks over at Reddit think should happen.
This is one way to look at it.
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According to this comment, they should probably split the bills.
This pet sitter thinks they need to use a professional next time.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who wants her daughter to help pay for her own cell phone, but her daughter says she can’t force her to get a job.
That puts a new spin on it.
The in-laws can’t expect one rule for themselves and another for everyone else.
He paid the larger bill without making a big deal about it because he accepted that the dogs were his responsibility.
Now that the situation has turned around, they should be willing to do the same.
They may not like paying $500, but they set that standard the first time.
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