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.

Not sure I'd dare to do it, but bring the tins to the afternoon school run and quite loudly -all friends should hear this- explain to her that you dog sat her dog for free, as a favour to her as a friend, and that you now hear from her that she wants compensation for the dogs snacking from each others bowls, and you feel sooooo sorry about the dogs sharing their food during the x days you dog sat for free as a favour for her and here are the tins you asked as compensation from me....

Shame her in front of all the school mums. Noone thinks you are unreasonable or taking the piss in any way

It is so normal for dogs to swap foods. They’re basically toddlers in animal form. When we got our second dog, I ended up feeding our adult dog puppy food otherwise we’d have had him eating puppy food and the puppy eating adult food.

I’d just say that if she feels like this, you will issue an invoice for the dogsitting services you’ve provided and deduct the cost of the food from that - how would she like her invoice sent?

You got some shit stirring school mum/s there OP.

This! Totally this. Awful woman.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

100%

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!

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.

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

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

Sometimes passive aggressive is great!

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 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.

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 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.

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

Why be so cowardly?

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.

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