Friend asking for dog food 'compensation'

[dogbiscuitsareforlife]

What do you make of this.

One of my school mum friends, (I'll call her Mary) has a dog and we often bump into each other out for dog walks and walk along together. Not super close, but chatty and friendly

Last week Mary told me she had been let down by a dog sitter for a holiday. She couldn't find anyone so I offered to help. Our dogs get on well and I'm used to having more than one, although at the moment only have one. She asked how much I'd charge but I said no bother just provide his usual food and treats, which she did. Her dogs food is a superior top end brand to the food I give mine.

All was great whilst we had him, but when feeding, the dogs seemed to favour each others food and swapped between bowls. I didn't think too much of it but did mention it to one of the other mums at the school gates in a jokey way, saying my dog obviously preferred the more expensive brand to the supermarket stuff I provided. Whereas her dog really liked the cheaper stuff.

Mary has obviously been told and today asked me if I fed my dog her dogs food. I was a bit taken aback but explained the above and of course I did give her dog its own food but sometimes dogs want what the other dog has.

She was very cold and told me to compensate her for any tins I gave my dog as she wasn't there to provide for my animal! I'm totally bemused, I saved her £100's in dog sitting fees and although I'm not now going to charge her she must see she is totally unfair.

Or am I wrong and should I buy a pack of 4 tins to give her. My DH says ignore but I don't want bad feeling.

I'm afraid my update is a bit of a damp squib. I saw her at school yesterday, we nodded at each other and that was that.
Of course, I will not offer to dog sit for her again but no doubt she wouldn't want a 'dog food thief' to do it anyway 🙄

i would invoice her for how many nights you had her dog and for the food that her dog ate of your dogs then work out the difference if there is any and settle the final amount!
she’s vile and no wonder nobody else wanted to look after her dog she’s not a nice person!

Why did the person she joked with tell the woman!

Typical you help out someone. I would reimburse the four cans minus what her dog ate from you and then say dnt bother asking again and get a new walking buddy .

Buy her a 4-pack, and tell her (or show her) exactly where to stick it 😄

What a disappointment she is. She clearly hasn’t realised her error and fully appreciated what you did for her.
Has she upset anyone else in the playground? If so, smile knowingly and when quizzed don’t keep quiet about what has happened.

She’s not a friend.
She is however a taker, whereas you are clearly more of a giver.
Also bloody rude!
Your hub is right - ignoring her is stretching politeness about as far as possible.

I wonder if someone actually asked her what she paid you for dog sitting. Then gave her an earful about "your" generosity.

I would absolutely be pointing out that you dog sat for her and asking her to compensate you for board! Yes there is being the bigger person, but sometimes people need calling out on there B.S

I wouldn't be at all surprised if you were asked to dog sit again. The realisation that she might need you in future might be why she softened. She might well start making efforts to be nice and build bridges as she realises the opportunity she has lost. If she does ask say no!

Ask her to recompense you for your dog's food which her dog ate. She's ridiculous.

I will definitely bill her for four nights dog sitting.

It sounds very much like the shit stirrer has told Mary that you deliberately feed your dog her dogs food and visa versa. I would be wanting to know who this shit stirrer is so I could stay well away from her!

If Mary every brings it back up just tell her what happened just like you have here and tell her you didn't see any harm as she didn't say her dog has any dietary needs. It was just the dogs being jealous of each other as children do. Maybe she doesn't realise it's typical behaviour in dogs. If you can make it so you have people around that would be better. At school gates, even better.

Still even if you had of swapped the foods so yours ate better for a week you have, as everyone has said, saved her £100's and should have been looking at it as 'so what, I saved £££'.

I would have conversation as above if ever it's mentioned and point out the money she saved over the dog food cost, but if she's that bothered then she can pay for the sitting and take off the cost of the food.

I think once you point out what happened and the money saved and how her so called friend tried to cause trouble for you both, that she will see you point and hopefully apologise.

I would make it clear that you won't be dog sitting again and that it just was not worth the hasstle it's caused.

Never know, it might not get brought up again. She will probably calm down, wobble her head and let it go if she's got any brains up there.

Ignore.

Honestly I think she told the story to someone who talked her into thinking it not fair. Maybe they did not get the details. She relies on people too easily.

Or she is miffed the dog won’t eat cheap stuff and it cost her more to have a dog now.

You should buy her 4 tins of “Premium Ungrateful Bitch” as that seems to be her preference and maybe tell her to fuck right off too.

I think she is very ungrateful and what does it matter if the dogs swap there foods as long as they are not ill or have an allergy. she would of had to pay a princely sum for dog sitting especially from a specialist dog sitter. upon this you tried to help her out by being kind. I would not give her the time of day if i was you. A d I certainly would not give her compensation she owes you more.

OP did she look at all sheepish or contrite?

Really, really hoping she has seen this thread.

I simply wouldn't do or say anything.
If she raises the matter with you again, I suggest acting utterly astonished and smile.
" I didn't for one moment think you were being serious!"
(Pause.)
"I know, I'll reimburse you when you've paid my dog-sitting invoice."
And exit, laughing.

Well, I'm not shocked. There are a lot of people like this around. I once looked after a 'friends' cat while they went on holiday many years ago. I'm actually allergic to cats so I just let it in and out and put food down. Unfortunately, it cottoned on to where we lived, across the road, and started to follow me home. I had to make sure it didn't get run over!
When she got back I told her what happened in a jokey way and the next thing I knew she was accusing me of trying to steal her cat 🙀.
There was no 'thanks for looking after my cat'. Just narcy comments and back stabbing. Unbelievable!
My advice is don't offer unless it's someone you know really, really well. Anyway, bollocks to woman who's abused you. She's clearly a bitch. At least you know this now.

I would tell her that I didn't take huge measures to make sure her dog ate the food she provided , because it was more work, and it didn't occur to me you would be so put out. Then say you will reimburse the food- but she will need to pay for her dogs board, because otherwise you will be out of pocket having done extra work to help her. I wouldn't be worried about offense, this is just the truth.

Had a weird situation similar to this where one of our neighbours offered to feed our cats whilst on holiday if we did the same for her when she went away. Was happy with that and bought a months supply of food ‘just incase’ even though we were only going for 2 weeks. When we came back there was literally NOTHING left! Not even a sachet- I had to go straight to the shop to get some food for them after hours of travelling. I thought maybe she’d dropped or spilt some food so had no reasonable explanation for it. I asked jokingly how they could have possibly got through so much and she pretty much ignored me! She had three cats of her own so that’s obviously where it went and she never asked me to feed hers either! I even bought flowers to say thanks thinking she might bring it up but never did. Some people are just strange and made me wary of who I did animal sitting deals with! Don’t give her the tins! I’d tell her she’s being unreasonable and got the wrong end of the stick.

One of my dogs would have the runs if his diet changed, while the other can (and has) literally eaten dry wall or foil roasting tubs 🤦🏼‍♀️ she could eat ANYTHING and be fine, but it doesn’t sound like you even checked or asked or made any effort to separate them for dinner

If CF's dog has digestive issues should his food be changed, the onus is on CF to tell the person who is looking after him.

I agree with your husband, just ignore it and don't get involved with such a petty woman. I expect the woman who told her didn't realise you were pet sitting for free.

If she won't let in drop, and continues to treat you as a a commercial pet sitting service, say you will prepare an an invoice for the pet sitting service at a reasonable rate, and and deduct the cost of her dog food from the total bill. I bet she doesn't pay it if she calls your bluff..

Good thing you didn’t let her babysit human kids. Who knows what she would have taken.