To think this is disgusting?

[CactusFred]

Last night I went to my friend's for dinner. I go every few weeks and we cook 'healthy' together rather than waste money on takeaway etc.

She's single with no kids and I'm married with one DC so I always go to hers for ease.

Anyway. She gets the stuff out of the fridge and puts it in the counter and says you chop and I'll start this.

There's a dog bowl on the chopping board. It has the remnants of dogs' meal in it. So I say I'll just wash the chopping board first.

She looks at me all confused and asks why. There's a dog bowl on it I say. She says it's clean. I say it's used! She then starts in about how her floor is spotless and 'not being funny' but her house is cleaner than mine, I have two cats and they probably go on counter etc.

They don't go on counter but I always use a clean chopping board anyway.

She throws the chopping board in the sink and washes it in a huff and it's really tense all evening. I tried to pretend it didn't happen but was gagging at food as if she preps food by dog bowl and thinks that's fine what else does she do?!

I'm also fuming about her saying her house is cleaner! I mean it is - on the surface at least - as her house is like show home but mine as hardly a pit!

AIBU to think prepping food next to dog bowl is disgusting?

YANBU. I once ate at a friend'a house and had a dog hair on my plate. I tried to discreetly get rid of it but she asked what it was, when I told her it was a dog hair she rolled her eyes and said "is that all? I've probably eaten a million of my dog's hairs. He is a clean dog,you know." I haven't eaten there since...

I'm also fuming about her saying her house is cleaner! I mean it is

I think it is odd of her to make such a fuss about you washing the chopping board at all to be honest, whether you agreed or not about the dog bowl. If someone was cooking in my house and wanted to give the board a wash I would be fine with that, even if secretly I thought they were over doing it a bit. It's not like you wanted to sterilise the whole blooming kitchen.

Yanbu. Yuck!

I wonder if she and some other stuff going on that put her in a particularly sensitive mood. Something you don't know about.

I wonder if maybe you were inadvertently a bit scathing when you said you were going to clean the board. In her situation, I wouldn't bat an eyelid at a friend giving the chopping board a quick wash before using it. But I probably would be annoyed if they'd gone about it in such a way as to suggest I was a dirty person.

It's just a dog bowl - not a raw chicken!

It seems to have escalated quickly, is there more to this?
FWIW, the chopping board was a bit grim, and her comment comparing your houses mildly rude - "disgusting" and "fuming" seem like overreactions.

So it was just a dog bowl on top of the board? Not actual dog food on the board?

I probably would just have turned the board over at most. It's not like she's feeding the dog cyanide.

Her reaction was a bit ott though - probably more embarrassment than actual insult.

I think you are kidding yourself about where your cats do and don't go too.

I think you are a bit U, but I can understand why.

No, I don't think prepping food next to a dog bowl is disgusting. The dog food hadnt jumped out of the bowl? I mean, I wouldn't like the smell, but I wouldn't worry about germs

Chopping boards a minging anyway. I don't think you can ever clean them properly.

Maybe just get the takeaway in future OP.

In my experience, my dog owning friends and family just don't notice the related filth.

I don't mind dogs, but they do make the houses ming.

You're both overreacting

Also I'm amazed if you're cats really don't ever go on the counter, even when you're not there

Yanbu! I have a dog and a cat and really low hygiene standards. What I think is disgusting and minging I know other people are fine with and what I think is ok other people have a problem with.

There's no way I'd have the dog bowl on top of the worktop if I knew someone was coming round for dinner let alone on the chopping board!

People forget that their way isn't the right way so when they see a criticism they get defensive. The right thing to do would have been for her to say "Of course! Silly me I never do that normally...." and give it a wash.

What is it about dog and cat food that makes people go all nuclear waste disposal?

I know someone who was HORRIFIED by their mum using a 'human' plate to give her cat some food. She remembered what plate it was and will now never use it at her mum's house.

If the bowl had been on the floor then I suppose yanbu to give it a quick wipe. But you were probably giving off more than you were aware of when you suggested washing it, hence her back being up.

This wouldn't bother me, especially if you were cooking whatever it was you were chopping.

Mixed reactions!

It wasn't so much the dog food but the fact the bowl was off the floor.

Maybe I'm extra squeamish? Before last night I'd always thought my friend super clean. I think it's the dog thing as they're her babies etc.

As for my cats on counter we 'trained' them as kittens to stay off and my DH is a geek and likes to set up cat cams (!!) and they never go up there

Personally, I'd have flipped the thing over and said no more. It wasn't worth offending your friend.

And the nuclear re pet food thing well I'm vegan. I hate the cat food tin and make DH feed them 6 days a week!

I have dogs and I would find this unpleasant.
Dogs bowls are washed separately.

Bowk this would make me feel physically sick.
Had a huge dog hair hanging from a coffee cup at mils after we visited when she got her dog.
I didn't go there for 7 years until the dog was dead.

I am not an animal lover at all unfortunately.

I'd have washed the board and just not mentioned it. Maybe she took it as a passive aggressive way of telling her she was a minger. Maybe she was already hacked off at you Being vegan and so she was extra sensitive to your criticism of meat. Maybe because her dog bowl is kept on her pristine floor she feels the bottom of the bowl is cleaner than most of your house (in her view) so she thinks you were being insulting.
Meh. If she is a good friend it won't really matter and if She isn't then does it matter anyway?

If it had the remnants of the dog food in it, then presumably it also had dog saliva in it and had been sitting on the floor before being out on the board unless the dog eats at the counter

Agree OP this is all kinds of yuck. Yuck.

I wash up the cat food bowls in the utility room. They never are brought into the kitchen.

Oh dear that escalated poor you i think friend was ott. A dog licks its bits then eats its dinner i would have given the board a quick wash but you innocently mentioned it and friend was offended about her furbaby dog being thought of as dirty.

Had a huge dog hair hanging from a coffee cup at mils after we visited when she got her dog.
I didn't go there for 7 years until the dog was dead. I am not an animal lover at all unfortunately.

Not much of a people lover either, are you?