While Dog Sitting For Someone, She Thought That She Got Stuck With An Abandoned Dog

Chip Chick |

Apr 25, 2023

Alexey Kuznetsov - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual dog

Anyone who has been a dog walker or pet sitter is bound to get a kick out of this story.

One TikTok user and pet-sitter for the company Wag recently documented her puzzling experience when a pet parent left their dog at her house for almost an entire extra day without explanation.

Val (@eatprayvibe) had TikTok users rushing to her comments section when she posted on New Year’s Eve that the person who booked her to board their dog for one night hadn’t picked him up the next day.

Val is a pet sitter for Wag, a company that connects pet owners to walkers, sitters, and boarders across the country.

She was booked to watch someone’s dog named Ringon Starr. Val was scheduled to watch Ringon from Friday, December 30th, to Saturday, December 31st. Ringon’s owner was supposed to pick him up by noon that day at the latest but didn’t arrive on time.

At 12:41 pm on New Year’s Eve, Val began to panic and asked for advice from other pet-sitters on TikTok on what she should do about Ringon.

In her video, Val explains that she tried to get in touch with Ringon’s owner through the Wag app, but she never answered.

Then, Val contacted Wag’s pet caregiver support, who said they would try the same thing. Unfortunately, they also couldn’t get the owner to answer!

“I don’t have the extra time to watch the dog and give it the care that it deserves,” Val says in her video, as she had New Year’s Eve plans scheduled for that night. “Any advice you have would be appreciated because I don’t want this dog to get abandoned.”

Alexey Kuznetsov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual dog

Hours went by without hearing from Ringon’s owner, and Val continued documenting her day on TikTok with the “abandoned” pup. She even filmed herself on the treadmill at one point, writing, “Getting a workout in with the orphan dog because his owner abandoned him with me.” Although the dog was without his owner, he did seem pretty content in Val’s care!

Finally, Val received a message from Ringon’s owner. She apologized and explained that she was under the impression that her reservation for the booking was flexible and that it “wouldn’t be an issue” for Val to watch him late. She said she was walking to her car and would get to Val’s as soon as possible.

Val asked for an ETA from the owner at 2:30 pm and didn’t hear back. At this point, Val had Wag charge the owner for an extra day of boarding. Around 4:00 pm, she contacted the owner again, stating that she had to leave her house soon and couldn’t care for the dog any longer.

Once again, the owner replied late with more excuses. She claimed to have gotten locked out of her car in the freezing cold, had a dead phone battery, and even got frostbite “everywhere.” The owner didn’t end up retrieving Ringon from Val until six hours after the scheduled pick-up time.

Thankfully, all is well. Ringon is back with his owner, Val made it to her NYE plans, and she even made some extra money from Wag off those hours she spent waiting for the dog’s owner. But can you imagine the panic she must have felt when the owner didn’t answer?

“Respect peoples’ time,” one TikTok viewer commented on Val’s video. “It’s not that hard.”