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.

It's a standing joke with the lovely person who boards my dog when we are away- she always eats someone else's tea and vice versa. It was the dog's choice!
I would love to know what Mary was told, and why she thinks someone who has saved her so much money owes her for a bit of dog food.

Find a large photo of a beautiful female dog and use it to home-make a card for her.

Put a cheque for the exact amount inside the card (luncheon vouchers or green shield stamps would be even better) and write across the front of the card under the photo "Wow, what a bitch!"

If it had upset her dog's stomach then surely OP would have been the one to suffer... it's a pretty swift feedback loop!

@dogbiscuitsareforlife are you sure that your 'friend' clearly understands that you didn't deliberately feed her dog YOUR dog's food, but sometimes they chose to swap when you were feeding them both at the same time?

I wonder if she got the wrong end of the stick, when she heard about it from someone else? I might have been upset if I thought you had done it on purpose, but not in the circumstances you describe.

Give her the difference in cost between the 2. Her dog still got to eat!!

Tell Mary to just take it off the dog sitting fee she owes you. Cow.

"4 tins costs £12, you can take that off the £275 boarding fee, if we're charging each other now"

I would give her a few tins of the food you buy for your own dog and make out you’re doing her a favour because her dog so clearly LOVED it😆

Don't you dare pay her without her first paying YOU for dog sitting! She is unbelievably rude. My dogs eat a pretty premium brand of food, and if someone was looking after them and my two abandoned their pricey food for chepaer dog food, I'd laugh about it. They wanted to try something different, no big deal. You saved her hundreds by looking after her dogs and she should be thanking you.

This 👆 CF!

I'd give her 2 tins and say that's how much you think you owe her since HER dog ate some of your dog food. And I'd politely add that I won't be doing her a favour again.

Don't trust the other shit stirrer mothers. Why did the gossipy one even mention your joking to the CF, how would it have come up in conversation? I'd be avoiding her at the school gates as well as the CF.

Point out to her that her dog ate your dogs food so you will be deducting that from the cost of her dog food. Her dog also used x amount of poo bags so that will be deducted and uneccessary washing because of hair it dropped round the house so you are also deducting the cost of electricity and water. Then ask her if she really wants to cut her nose off to spite her face when you did her a favour and it was the dogs who decided to switch food

Yes, do this! Cheeky mare.

I would give her a few tins of the food you buy for your own dog and make out you’re doing her a favour because her dog so clearly LOVED it😆

Love that idea!

What unbelievable cheek! I have noticed these days that no good deed goes unpunished, and people are incredibly churlish and entitled.

“Let’s keep it simple. Knock off £xxx for the dog food from the £yyyy you owe me for pet sitting”

This isn't a bad idea.

Alternatives include asking for her bank account details to pay her the difference in cost between your tins and hers and instead of putting your name in the reference for her account putting something more appropriate such as "food for the bitch" etc.

I'd have a chat with the Mum who told her. Explain how shocked you are as you've been asked to pay for dog food after not charging anything for looking after her dog. Ask her exactly what she said as it appears to have been blown out of proportion. Make sure you do this in a loud voice around the school gate so others hear.

Then ask your "Friend" exactly what she was told had happened. Again, have others around to hear if possible. I would then reimburse her, but only for the difference in price and let everyone know that you did all the care for nothing. It will show her up for being the grabby one and no-one else is likely to offer to do dog care for her after that. I'd also be making PA jokes about how you had to pay to do a massive favour for a friend. (I hope you haven't got long left at the school gates).

Hilarious! Ungrateful personified! When I’d stopped laughing I would tell her that if you had known she would be so petty and unreasonable, I would never have offered to look after the dog and certainly not FOR FREE. Ask her how much she thinks she saved on her regular sitting fees and tell her you’ll bill her but make a deduction for what her dog ate of your dog’s food.

Then I would never interact with her or acknowledge her presence again.

I might be tempted to pay the balance in public, at the school gates and in cash.

'Mary, I heard you were upset about the cost difference of the dogs swapping food when I looked after yours for you the other week. I had a think and estimated mine ate about 4 tins of your food and yours ate about 4 tins of mine. Yours is £2.50 a tin so that's £10 I owe you, but mine is £1.50 a tin, so that's £6 to be deducted off that. Here's your £4. I hope you find a good dog sitter next time.'

Fucking hell. Make her a cottage pie to apologise for your shit behaviour and promise never to do it again. A very special cottage pie.

In this case I'd buy the food and hand it to her while waiting outside the school gates and politely just say "I'm sorry X ate some of Ys food and you're so upset about it and as requested by yourself to replace it I have, but as I said first off I still don't expect any payment for looking after him for the X amount of days he was with us, here you go".

Then hand the food over in front of the other parents...

my son's dog much prefers my dog's cheaper food!
however my son knows because he says it upsets his stomach!

This is indicative of how horrible school gate "friendships" are.

I'm the grumpy rude bitch who sits in her car and makes no attempt to socialise. It's better that way.

I'm rather passive agressive and i would buy 4 tins go to the school and in front of everyone i would give her the food and say "it's such a shame our dogs can't eat their own food as i would of had you dog anytime for you without payment buy as they have now put me out of pocket i can't offer again"

Love this!
Honestly she is being unbelievably petty, you did her a massive favour and saved her loads of money.
Sounds like it's just posh food rather than a specific vet diet.
My cat is on vetinary food for a medical condition so I always tell whoever looks after him he can only eat this specific food, otherwise he will be ill. If her dogs food was for health conditions she definitely would have said so she's just being a CF.
And tbh even if another animal ate my cats food I wouldnt care as long as he had enough and didn't eat anything else himself

A perfect example of the stupidity of dog owners.
😉😁😁.