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.

Hi Mary, just want to check: you're asking me to give you money after I looked after your dog for free? I'm sure I've misunderstood what you mean, as that sounds crazy written down, doesn't it?! So just wanted to check as obviously wires have got crossed somewhere!

But seriously, she's a twat and I wouldn't be speaking to her again.

No way would I compensate her. If she pushes it just tell her you'll adjust it off your nightly rate and she can transfer the money she owes you. Absolutely no way would I be paying her. Shocking behaviour. If she starts bad mouthing you let her because it will be a reflection on her and not you. Any rational person could see she is way out of order here.

give her the food back along with an invoice for boarding and dog walking, include the invoice somewhere that food costs have been covered also, cheeky bitch

Work out what the difference in price between your usual food and her premium food, then message back to say:

Dear Mary, to clarify, I put your food out for your dog and my food out for my dog. It's not my fault they chose to swap! However, if the £ you feel you lost by my dog eating some of your food is so much more important than the ££££ you saved when I offered to dogsit for free, I'll transfer the money - just let me know your details.

It's a pity you didn't still have bags of her dog's poo. You could return it to her house for her to dispose of.

“I also don't think the mum who told Mary was trying to make trouble.”
She wasn’t? She sounds like a shit stirrer to me, guess you need to watch your words around the school gate going forward. Are mums at your school gate that jobless that this is what they talk about?

100% agree with this.

I'd buy her the tins, and have nothing to do with her or the gossipy shit stirrer one

and then whenever the opportunity arose in future, give it a bit of time obv, I'd tell the anecdote of Mingey Mary, the free dog sitting and the 4 tins to anyone who would listen - casually in passing at a dinner party, over a coffee, just drip it gently gently into the social history of who she is.

I'd tell her to deduct it from her dog's boarding fees, then stare at her.

But it’s not that simple. The dog has a diet which works well for them, you don’t know how they might react to other food.
The dog could have an allergy to an ingredient in the food that it hadn’t been exposed to before. And then your dog is ill, you’re hundreds (or thousands) of miles away unable to do anything, and OP has to sort out vet care. Not to mention that minor symptoms might not be noticed by OP as it’s not her dog.
Because dogs eat the same thing every day, adverse reactions to changes in their diet are really common - because it’s actually a huge change (imagine if you ate boiled chicken and white rice for every meal of your entire life and then suddenly you got given a macdonalds hamburger). And allergies/intolerances are also way more common than people realise. There’s a reason why vets recommend changing food gradually.

I looked after my friends three staffies during her trip abroad (her DM stayed with them during the night) and she provided their food. I saved her £££'s and she was super grateful. She bought me and my DC presents off her holidays (even though I told her not to!) She works really bloody hard and deserved her holiday with her own DCs.

The OP isn't BU. I would just ignore her. Lesson learnt. Don't dog sit for them again.

I'd love to do a lot of the suggestions on this thread but to be honest I'd end up doing what @DysonSphere and @BeensOnToost suggest. Give her the cans of food without comment, and never ever do her a favour ever again. (I wouldn't mention any of it to others either, you want to take the high road here.)

Though I do agree that the other mum is not to be trusted in future. Definite shit-stirrer.

"You asked for X for the cost of dog food, but I saved you Y in dog sitter fees. Shall we call it quits?"

Buy the dog food and invoice her for keeping her dog.

I think you need to find out what she has been told.

"dogbiscuitsareforlife was telling us at the school gates that she gave her dog your fancy food and gave your dog cheap shite instead."

It's not good for dogs to change their diet like that suddenly.

No good deed goes unpunished.

In which case, don’t be a tight fecker and kennel your dog at significant cost in a professional facility.

The OP is not in the wrong here!

This. 💚
...............

Give her an invoice for the dog boarding and ask her to deduct the food cost from that. She won't. I doubt you'll see her again but you will have made your point.

Let that also be a lesson to you:
°Charge for your sevices, people rarely appreciate free.
°Feed the dogs separately.
°Don't share unnecessary information.

She can pay you in full for dog sitting or you can compensate her for the food - her choice 🤷🏼‍♀️ CF.

You're not unreasonable and it's a completely normal thing to say. Ignore the text about food, and stay away from these people, including the person you made the joke to. If she wants to talk in person that's fine you can explain then, but don't buy her anything and kindly explain how hurt you are by her demand.

Then don't be a CF and put your hands in your pocket for full price of professional board 🤨🙄

If you look at my original post you’ll see I agree with OP! But also it’s not that hard to feed dogs in different rooms.

Please do come back to us and let us know what you decide OP.

Tell Mary of F off and while you're at it give her an invoice for dog sitting less the cost of 4 tins of her precious dog food - cheeky cow.

This is absolutely ridiculous on her part.
Depending on how well you got on with her up to this point, I'd try to find out what she'd been told and go from there.
If she insists on being a total arse about this and you can't get her to see sense then I'd research the dog sitting rate for a dog like hers, and charge accordingly less the dog food she wants reimbursing for. And push for the money.

I would agree that one of the other mums has been stirring up trouble here so I'd be careful going forwards and try and find out who was the culprit

What a truly awful person.

Then put your dog with a professional dog boarder and not some acquaintance at the school gate.