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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Did I overreact to incident in restaurant?

172 replies

fatgirlonthebeach · 08/09/2019 06:35

Currently on holiday in Greece and was out last night for a meal with DP. It's quite normal here for cats to wander around the outside tables hoping to be given a bit of food. I like cats but I don't feed them as I know some taverna owners don't like it. We had finished our meal when a couple sat on the table next to us and started to feed the cats. I didn't have a problem with this until one poor cat started throwing up right underneath my chair. It really upset me and I didn't want to stay sitting where I was with cat sick on the floor so I told DP we would have to move to another table to finish our drinks.

The couple who had fed the cat saw me trying to move and heard me say (to my DP) that it was disgusting and I wasn't happy to stay sitting where I was. The couple glared at me as if I had gone mad and was making a big deal of it (whilst they happily carried on eating). I had a bit of a job getting away from our table as we were sat in a corner and the couple had put their bags on their spare chair which was blocking my exit. They made no attempt to move the chair to help me get out and carried on looking at me as if I was overreacting.

DP and I moved to another table and finished our drinks. The taverna owner came over to ask why we had moved so I explained and he apologised but I didn't blame him at all and smiled happily and said it was no problem.

DP seems to think that I overreacted and that we should have stayed at our table. He also wanted to order another round of drinks but I really wasn't happy to stay sitting where I was. The cat-feeders clearly thought I was bonkers.

Did I overreact? Would you have stayed sitting there with cat sick under your chair?

OP posts:
JazzyGG · 08/09/2019 11:04

I'd move if my own cat was sick. YANBU.

m0therofdragons · 08/09/2019 11:23

That's nothing. Similar situation in a Greek taverna a boy about 10 was kicking all the kittens. I was 8 and I stood up from the table, kicked the boy really hard in the shin then returned to my parents at the table and carried on eating. My parents were embarrassed but also a bit proud. All the English families cheered and the boy's family left very quickly.

You moved to a preferable table, it's not even an issue.

NoSquirrels · 08/09/2019 11:38

Of course you wanted to move - who wouldn't?

If you had been shown to the table at the beginning of the night, and there was a pile of vomit there, would you have sat down? Would the waitress/whoever have thought you "precious" for not just sitting there?

Of course not! They'd have found you a new table, and then they'd have cleared up the sick.

Indeed, if you had alerted the waitress/owner to the cat sick, they would probably have offered you a new table and then cleared up the sick.

No one would expect you to sit there enjoying the end of your drinks and meal whilst either a) dodging vomit by your feet or b) having someone clean up around your ankles.

Anyone who says otherwise is exceptionally odd.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 08/09/2019 11:54

That's nothing. Similar situation in a Greek taverna a boy about 10 was kicking all the kittens. I was 8 and I stood up from the table, kicked the boy really hard in the shin then returned to my parents at the table and carried on eating. My parents were embarrassed but also a bit proud. All the English families cheered and the boy's family left very quickly

I want to be you when I grow up.

OP - I am the biggest cat lover on the planet and I may or may not have moved depending on the actual vomit situation - but you were not unreasonable for moving and the other couple were churlish for drawing attention to you doing so. I can't resist feeding strays, but I never do it so openly for fear of inconveniencing others.

I'm remembering a particular might in Spain where we over-ordered and I think I fed most of the cats in the town, who, to my DP's chagrin, also refused to eat the nasty aniseed-flavored blood sausage that even he could not choke down.

Aprillygirl · 08/09/2019 12:15

If the cat sicked up on the table fair enough but, as long as it didn't smell, a bit of cat sick under my chair, where I didn't even have to look at it, honestly would not bother. I think you were being precious and a bit of a drama queen, sorry.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 08/09/2019 12:23

There would not have been any drama if the OP had moved and no one had reacted. The drama was caused only by the cat-feeding couple who blocked their exit and made it difficult for them to move without drama.

bobstersmum · 08/09/2019 12:23

I can't get too upset about a bit of cat sick. I'd have asked for it to be cleaned up and that be it.

heveranne · 08/09/2019 12:39

I don't understand why it affected you so much that you wouldn't have another drink at a table away from the cat sick? From that perspective I can see why your husband thought you were overreacting. I still think that it's possible that your behaviour when moving away from the table was a little more dramatic than you are portraying.

ShirleyPhallus · 08/09/2019 12:46

I wonder how many of the “cat sick is fine” brigade own cats. In my experience, cat owners are entirely nose blind to the smell of cats. I’ve never been to someone’s house who owns a cat where it doesn’t smell overwhelmingly like cats. Especially the room with the litter tray which always smells like cat shit

Aridane · 08/09/2019 13:03

*Not an over reaction to move table. Starting a thread about it is an over reaction though+

Well- that approach would decimate most of mumsnet!

Aridane · 08/09/2019 13:09

surreal

Posters on other threads today think it beyond grim that someone put s pet food bowl in the dishwasher

It hear the OP is apparently being beyond unreasonable for not wanting to eat - drink sitting over cat sick!!

Aridane · 08/09/2019 13:09

Yet here, not It Hear

Poppins2016 · 08/09/2019 13:13

I'm a cat lover and still wouldn't have been happy to sit with cat vomit under my chair! I would have moved or requested a clear up.

Aridane · 08/09/2019 13:15

That wouldn't bother me at all, I have cats so I'm used to it.

At most I would have cleaned it up myself, no big deal.

I am used to shit, periodblood, vomit etc. Wouldn’t expect however to sit bi it / over it and like fuck would anyone in a restaurant go around clearing vomit (other than perhaps one’s own)

Aridane · 08/09/2019 13:18

If the cat sicked up on the table fair enough but, as long as it didn't smell, a bit of cat sick under my chair, where I didn't even have to look at it, honestly would not bother. I think you were being precious and a bit of a drama queen, sorry

Let’s all go a do a wee bit of sicking up under these posters’ chairs in cafes etc and see how sanguine they are.

OP - you would have been unreasonable to stay at the cat sick table!

YetAnotherSpartacus · 08/09/2019 13:19

Starting a thread about it is an over reaction though

Only because I now have an overwhelming desire to go to Greece to feed the kitties.

Teateaandmoretea · 08/09/2019 13:21

Aridane that's Mumsnet. Couldn't agree more, it's one strange place.

CrazyOldBagLady · 08/09/2019 13:24

YANBU OP, either for changing tables or moving on elsewhere. I can't imagine wanting to hang around somewhere where any type of creature is free to come and vom under my table.

DieBabySharkDie · 08/09/2019 13:24

YANBU - I would have absolutely moved tables. I would have also, loudly asked the people to move their bags so I could get past faster and asked them what the fuck their shitty looks were for considering it was their fault the cat threw up?
My DP would have probably scooped it up without saying a word and plonked it on their table.
Something similar happened in Turkey a couple of years ago... with dogs. I'd had enough of this other table, a few down from where we were sat, throwing scraps of food to the stray dogs - but they were throwing it so it kept landing right next to our table, even under it at times. We asked them a few times to stop but they just rolled their eyes and carried on whilst laughing. I had a meatball roll up to my chair leg and I tried to kick it away but three dogs started fighting over it, knocking our table and the drinks fell over as they were fighting and I got badly bitten on the leg and then my hand in the crossfire!
DP saw red and went berserk. The waiters got the dogs away and then had to pull DP off the dog-feeders.
Next time we were away we saw another table feeding dogs and he couldn't help but say something, but luckily they were nice people thinking they were doing a good thing, so when they heard what happened before to us they stopped immediately.

Aprillygirl · 08/09/2019 13:26

Let’s all go a do a wee bit of sicking up under these posters’ chairs in cafes etc and see how sanguine they are.

Human vomit is different. Human sick usually stinks, is profuse and has bits of carrot in it boke Envy

Doobigetta · 08/09/2019 13:39

Mumsnet is increasingly insane. I love cats. If one comes to see me in a restaurant I always have a little chat with it and it makes my evening. I don’t feed them or touch them though, since a cat in the Dominican Republic took a piece of meat from me a bit too enthusiastically, drew a (tiny) drop of blood and I spent the rest of the holiday quietly worrying that I might have rabies. Those cats often aren’t pets, or if they are they aren’t treated like British pets, and they’re often a bit feisty and definitely flea-y. It makes sense to be a bit circumspect.
But anyway, I wouldn’t sit next to my own cat’s puke- I’d clean it up. And if it wasn’t my cat or my home I’d move away and expect someone else to clean it up pdq. That’s not over-reacting, or being precious, it’s normal. And why the hell shouldn’t the OP be making a point to the other couple? They made the poor little cat sick, they should feel bad.

MRex · 08/09/2019 13:45

I wonder what else some of these people will sit having a drink over in order to not be perceived as fussy. If a stray dog does just a little wee up your chair leg? Or a passing goat drops just a little poo? How about if a child vomits on the table, just leave it and carry on with your drink?

JingsMahBucket · 08/09/2019 21:18

I’ve also had cats and am a supreme cat lover. The sound of a cat retching is like a bloody exorcism. There’s no way in hell I would’ve stayed around for the aftermath just to avoid being seen as “fussy”. Some of these posters are crazy.

tinkerbellla · 08/09/2019 21:22

Ugh god no, that makes me feel ill just thinking about it and I'm a cat person. I would have moved in a second

zukiecat · 09/09/2019 10:40

Aridane

Actually I would just clean it up, it really doesn't bother me at all, I have three cats, cleaning up a bit of cat sick wouldn't even register as something to worry about.

If I was on holiday and had a choice of animal friendly restaurants or non animal friendly I'd go for the animal friendly one every time