A woman who trusted her teenage neighbour to care for her pets for four days while she was out of town has since lived to regret it and now doesn't want to pay him a single penny. According to this peeved pet owner, she agreed to let the 16-year-old pet sit for her dog and indoor cat for a fairly decent amount of money, only for him to lose the cat after just two days.
Halfway through the trip, the teen messaged her to admit he'd lost their key, and so she gave him the code to the garage, wanting to make sure he could still get in and out to feed the animals. Upon their return, the cat was nowhere to be found.
When questioned about when he'd last seen the cat, the youngster claimed he'd seen her that very morning. After checking security footage, the woman spotted her prowling around outside at 5:30 am, and so knew she'd been out since at least the day before.
Her garage door app allows her to see when it has been opened and closed, so she knew he hadn't been there that early. Furthermore, the cat's litter box was 'pretty clean', leading the ticked-off owner to suspect she's probably been 'gone for two nights'.
Taking to Reddit, where she goes by the username u/DntMkeMeUseMyHRVoice, the cat owner recalled: "When I told him the cat was gone he did come over and offer to go look for her and took off in his car. We saw him come back on our camera with a grocery store bag, so not sure if he actually went looking for her or not as he claimed.
"We left the door open overnight and she did come home and is fine. There was a good chance she couldn’t have, as we live one street over from open space where a pack of coyotes frequent and she is only 8lbs so a lot of other animals could have gotten her too."
She added: "We decided not to pay him. It’s a pay-what-you-want agreement and given that we now need to rekey the house and he lost our cat we didn’t feel that he took his responsibilities seriously, and the bigger the mistake the bigger the consequence.
"You may say, well any job would have to still pay you. Yes, but they also can deduct or charge you the cost of damages which in this case will be more than what we would have paid him and we aren’t asking for it, just not paying him."
She's now wondering whether she might have been too harsh, having initially wanted to help the teen earn a bit of extra cash. However, many of her fellow Reddit users completely understand where she's coming from, branding the pet sitter as 'terrible'.
One person commented: "The real kicker for me is it seems like from what you shared he lost the cat at some point earlier and rather than immediately telling you and starting a search, he lied to you. Just not even on the same planet as acceptable. I’m so relieved you got lucky and your cat made it home."
Another agreed: "If he protests, tell him you know he lied about the last time he saw the cat, and that it was outside for two days, so what exactly does he expect you to pay him for? Exposing your indoor cat to coyotes?"
Do you have a nightmare petsitting story to share? Email us at julia.banim@reachplc.com
