Friend asking for dog food 'compensation'

Yes, this - she's blaming you for 'giving your dog her dog's food', but if she wants to be so hard-line about it, her dog stole your dog's food too!

Dogs don't know or care about what food costs - they just know what they like and if they fancy a try of something new that they see.

She definitely sounds like one of these people who has a seriously ungrateful attitude that irritates, alienates and drives people away - and then is genuinely perplexed when nobody wants to be her friend or do her any favours anymore (that will spring back on them and make them regret it).

She's clearly not the shiniest penny in the purse to have brought this up. Any idiot could realise that the price of a few tins of dog food (especially deducting the cost of the other dog's food that her dog ate) is far, far less than how much you already saved her - let alone any goodwill that she could have 'banked' for future favours.

You can't stop dogs and cats eating each others food unless you feed them in a separate parts of the house and watch over them to lift the bowls (which many don't appreciate and can be reluctant to eat) . It's a nightmare when it's your own you have to control and they're on a special diet and you have to be hyper vigilant. She didn't even mention it to you, and if anything she should be irritated about, it's at herself for not telling you.
I'd be sending the petty dog novice a bill for the stay if she wants to go down that road.

Expensive dog food is much preferred by my dog, too.

It's not surprising, really.
Meatier, more substantial compared to the other food I was giving {which she likes and gets good reviews}

@dogbiscuitsareforlife I'm guessing Lily's Kitchen as you say ''cans''?

Your friend is being completely unreasonable.

My friend charges £50 per 24 hrs.

Who was the stirrer that told her. She probably riled your friend up, saying how bad it is your dog stole her dogs food. Regardless, you’ve saved her a huge amount on sitting fees, so she has no right to say anything either way. Don’t do her a favour again

Of course, she’ll also be compensating you for the food her dog ate out of your dog’s bowl?

I would simply message exactly as you have .

Tobe clear dogs were fed together - they occasionally swapped bowls …

i can only assume you are joking as I saved you £100’s of pounds .

i will not be reimbursing you for doing you a huge favour at short notice

I hope you can realise how ridiculous this request is

Thé only way you would be unreasonable would be if her dog had a special diet for health reasons- in which case you would have presumably separated them at feeding time anyway.

Sounds like someone's been stirring.

Why be so cowardly?

Yup, don’t be a mug. She’s being an arse. If she wants to pay you for your time, consider paying for the dog food. I would defo tell her to GTF frankly, what a CF! The entitlement of some people you hear about on here is breathtaking l

I would give her the four tins and tell her that you won't be billing her for the dog food her dog ate that belonged to your dog and that you won't be available for any further pet sitting as this whole situation is very awkward.

I would also ask her what on earth the gate gossip said to her to provoke such a reaction because I doubt it was 'Their dog ate a few mouthfuls of your dog's food'. I think someone embellished the story significantly.

But she does sound like a stingy whackadoo so even if she is cold to you in the future, that sounds like a win win situation to me.

You should have fed them separately as a sudden change in food can cause an upset stomach but the woman is being ridiculous as she received her dog back safe and well and didn't have to pay for a dog minder or boarder whilst she was away.

I would have given her a funny look and said what on earth are you talking about m, your dog only ate it's own food and then if she mentioned the other person who has gossiped about you to her I would have denied it and let the pair of them fallout!

Just laugh in her face and ask her to tel you the cost of boarding fees or pet sitting services!

Absolutely do not reimburse her!

I would be telling her to do one - you put both foods down for the respective dogs and they stole each other's food - I would tell her you are shocked that she has the cheek to suggest you have stolen her dog's food particularly since you saved her hundreds in boarding fees and that you may consider an apology from her if she manages to give her head a wobble but that her behaviour is at best poorly judged and insulting and definitely rules out any favours in the future.

It’s fairly normal and something we laugh about. My dog can turn her nose up at anything and everything. We buy her all sorts of brands, meat from butchers, prawns, sometimes cheap stuff from the supermarket. Nothing really sticks for more than 2-3 meals. However, when visiting dogs come to stay everyone seems to want what the other dogs have, regardless of whether they’ve turned their nose up at that brand before.

its probably something I would laugh at in a ‘aren’t they fickle little sods’ type of way.

I’d buy her the expensive dog food and never talk to her again.

Sometimes passive aggressive is great!

I would send her an invoice for a weeks' worth of professional dog care and tell her to fuck off.

So glad I never bothered with anyone at the school gates knowing I avoided this type of shite.

Someone has been winding Mary up op but Mary is too thick to realise and shot herself in the foot.

I have 2 dogs. One is on a special diet but they love the other's food if they can get hold of it. It doesn't matter how expensive either is. I think it's just dog behaviour.

People can be bizarre, especiallydog people! You have done nothing wrong.

Do not buy the 4 tins, you'll be a mug. She has saved you loads of money. It's very hard to get someone to look after your dog at short notice and costs a lot! I pay £50 per night for my dog boarding place. You tell her that it's very unfair that you've done her a favour, saved her money and now she wants you to pay!

100%

This is such an ungrateful thing for her to do. When my dog goes to her dog sitters she always comes back with totally different colour and texture poo (sorry!) than when she left us, so it's obvious that she's been eating another dog's food. She doesn't have any special dietary needs but we do give her expensive food - I still wouldn't care if another dog ate it, because my dog is eating another dog's food also. She's eating, that's really all that matters. And if someone had offered to look after her for free, I'd care even less (if that's possible) that the food had gotten swapped by the dogs. You did her a massive favour. I'd refuse to compensate her and tell her that you won't be dog sitting again. Really short sighted of her to be such an arse about this issue when she might need such a favour sometime in the future.

I don't get Mumsnet sometimes.

Why are there so many of these threads lately where an OP comes on to say they've done someone a massive favour for free, and then the person throws it back in their face with something ridiculous like dog food compensation?

We've had 'babysitting', 'pick ups/drop offs', 'house sitting' and many more in the last 5 or 6 weeks.

I mean one thread would be unusual given the level of cheeky fuckery claimed, but they're like buses now.

Thankfully I've never known or heard anything like it in real life.

I'd ignore

If she asks again I'd laugh & say "oh I thought you were joking. But if you want to go down that route you were away for 7 nights. Let's say £20 a night, that's £140. You can take off £10 for the small amount of food my dog stole. Now will you be giving me cash tomorrow or do you want my bank details?"

Extra points if she asks at the school gates & gossiping mum hears.

Mary never had a dog sitter lined up, I suspect.

Anyone who had been genuinely let down would be pathetically grateful for the favour, knowing that boarding is around £50 a day.

Most dogs get the same thing everyday so it probably was exciting for them to swap.
This woman is a dick, and if she brings it up again I'd say oh I thought you were joking, I didn't for one moment think you'd be serious after I looked after your dog for you free of charge and probably saved you much more than the food cost.

This! Totally this. Awful woman.