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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

She's a crap friend who doesn't value you firstly. Her dog ate your dog's food, benefitted from your central heating, cleaning bill, I mean this is ridiculous. You've done her a MASSIVE favour. It would really sour the friendship for me.

Definitely sounds like someone has been shit stirring.

It's pretty rich that she wouldn't even pay you in dog food. If anyone deserves dog food compensation, it's you.

I’m sure a similar thread was posted (& deleted) recently, however that story was about another school mum’s DD and a packed lunch instead of a dog & dog food tins

That's preposterous and very ungrateful. You were doing her a favour.
I would buy her nothing

Send her the calculations with the cost of the food deducted from a typical kennel fee, please! What a bitch.

That.

However I am horrified at the school mum whom you told jokingly, repeating this. She is a gossip.

I always avoided 'pavement pow-wows' at school pick up time for that very reason and never understand why people want to 'make friends' in that way.

You did a good turn, absolutely nothing wrong, I've heard it said that no good deed goes unpunished and your opening post illustrates that very well. I am sorry, it must have been hurtful, doubly so as it was talked about.

Beware in future.

I wonder why you weren't able to feed Mary's dog in another room with the door shut until both dogs had finished?

Apart from that, Mary sounds very unappreciative of your kind offer to take care of her dog, gratis, while she was away.

Surely her being able to have dog care while on holiday was worth more than 4 tins of her dog's food.

Replace the tins, and remark that hopefully, her pre-arranged dog sitter won't let her down next time, since you don't wish to fall out with Mary.

Outrageous! I would send her a formal invoice for dog sitting services and deduct the exact amount for the dog food that your dog ate!
Then avoid her AND the gossipy parent who dobbed you in.

If anything, even though you said you didn't want payment it would have been a nice gesture for her to subtly ask in advance what food your dog eats and then drop off a supply of that along with the food for her own dog.

Kind of the pet equivalent of getting a friend a bottle of wine or a big box of chocolates to thank them for a generous favour they insist that they don't want any money for.

Wow what a cheeky fucker.

But very shorted sighted. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

You won't be offering free dog boarding to her again!

We recently looked after a dog and didn’t ask for any money for it (just food as you said) and the owner gave us a £100 restaurant voucher as a thank you as she said she’d been quoted over £400 for boarding at a dog hotel so was grateful for the money saved! The person you helped is a CF.

I do dog swap sits with a friend, and their pooch is supplied with all food and treats.
Hilariously their dog turns her very haughty nose up at the posh treats supplied by her owners and only wants the Aldi centre aisle stuff I give my dog. I give my dog the posh stuff and Her Majesty gets the Aldi treats. Everyone's a winner,

Of course I tell the owners and they larf. Because they are not arses.

I wonder why you weren't able to feed Mary's dog in another room with the door shut until both dogs had finished?

Why would that even matter? The dogs are friendly and neither has dietary issues that mean they have to have particular food.

Do you shut yourself off in another room to eat when you have friends there who are also eating?

When I was young we looked after a neighbours dog for a few days. They left behind a loaf of bread and some gravy granules as food! My mum gave him the same food as our dog got and when they returned he ran behind our sofa and refused to leave with them! They eventually dragged the poor dog out but he continued to show up regularly at our house for food for a long time after!

My god is there really people out there who behave like this....I would be furious and spreading this all around the school that Mary is a tight arse ungrateful cow and you will no longer be dog sitting for her.

Once again, this person is not a friend.

This is an ungrateful cow who lacks understanding that no-one owes her favours.

I would have given her both barrels - probably in the school playground and warned anyone and everyone of ever doing her any favours again because instead of paying for a service rendered Mary expects you to pay her.

No-one would do this to me, because everyone knows how I would react to such a ridiculous request.

It would likely end up with her wearing her expensive dog food.

I would tell her to go ahead and sue me.

She’s being very unreasonable to ask for compensation BUT regardless of whether the dog had a special diet or not you should not have let the dogs swap food. She’s probably a bit annoyed because it could upset her dogs stomach. If you have the same thing in future feed the dogs in separate rooms.
I’d just ignore it, she may have heard a slightly different story and was annoyed so sent the text on impulse. Maybe say “hey, I’m sorry that our dogs ended up eating each others food - I didn’t do it on purpose they just kept swapping!” And ignore the part about the money/replacement.
If she asks again say that you looked after her dog for free so you’re not going to reimburse her.

The person who grassed you up to her for making a jokey comment is an arsehole. Mary is also an arsehole, but may have got the wrong end of the stick through the person who can't keep their mouth shut. Deeply bizarre. Unless the dog has allergies, then why even bother buying really expensive food when the dog prefers cheap brand?

Send her 4 tins back with a note saying "no charge has added for boarding your dog but please dont ask me again"