Mixing friendship and business is tricky on a good day, and she just learned that lesson. What started as a trusted friend watching her dog turned into an unexpected vet bill, a surprise invoice, and a friendship that’s now hanging by a thread.
This woman recently went away on vacation and left her dog with her dog sitter, who is also a friend of hers. Her dog sitter is amazing with her pup, and she always trusts her completely.
Before leaving, she told her dog sitter that her dog will eat practically anything she can get her paws on, and really loves chocolate, so she reminded her to keep food out of reach.
Well, her dog sitter messed up and informed her while she was still away that her dog had gone into the chocolate she had left out. Her dog sitter brought her dog to the vet immediately, so she was fine, but she was furious with her dog sitter.
She remained calm, though, not wanting her dog sitter to know how mad she was, and instead, she comforted her.
“The issue: we got back from our trip to learn she didn’t pay the vet bill. She just left it for us to pay and didn’t even tell us in advance or offer any compromise,” she explained.
“We were really annoyed but decided to pay and let it go to not strain the friendship. However, she just texted us an itemized list of services she provided that felt out of nowhere and [were] very petty.”
“For one, we dropped our dog at her house for maybe two hours last week, no walks, meals, or any other care needed, and she didn’t mention getting paid for that (sure, I’d love to hang out with my little buddy for a couple of hours). We assumed it was a friend doing a favor (as happens here all the time between our friends).”
She chalked it up to a miscommunication and said yes to paying her without fighting about it. As she said before, her dog sitter is more than the service she provides; she’s her friend, and they hang out with a larger group of friends.
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After she returned from her vacation, she even took her dog sitter out to dinner to thank her, and she did pay her for dog sitting on top of that.
But since her dog sitter is making everything transactional, she doesn’t think she should have to pay for the vet bill, since it’s her dog sitter’s fault.
“So we wrote her back with our calculation of all the things she said we owe her, minus the vet bill. Now she’s furious and says that it’s understood that owners pay for vet bills during dog sits; however, this was 100% her negligence that could have been fatal for our dog,” she continued.
“Why are we responsible to pay for that? We offered to sit and talk it though but she says she’s too angry for that.”
She’s left wondering if she’s a jerk for expecting her dog sitter to cover the vet bill after she sent her an additional list of things she wanted to charge for.
She warned her dog sitter about leaving food and chocolate out, and this girl still did it, so that’s not right. I think her dog sitter should be on the hook for the vet bill.
Her dog sitter was negligent and could have harmed her dog. Luckily, that didn’t happen, but I don’t see how she can be friends with this woman or trust her with her dog ever again. Time to find a new dog sitter.
What do you think?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
