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A Reddit user divided opinions on social media after revealing that she refused to pay her friend $2,000 for watching her cat for six months. In a post shared on Wednesday under the username u/Swimming-Champion-90, she said that, after learning she had been deployed for six months, she asked her male coworker, whom she considered a friend, to take care of her cat while she was gone and he agreed. The poster wrote: “No money was agreed or promised before I left. During the time I paid for her expenses as he told me them. And when I got back I picked her up I gave $300 because I considered this a favor from a friend. They did not like the amount given and wanted $2,000. “In their words the pet care center (nearest boarder) costs $20/day or $100/week so they should get $10/day because of the effort involved in taking care of my cat.” Stock image: A man greets a woman at the door, holding a tabby cat in his arms. The poster refused to pay the sum requested by her friend, and she didn’t think he put as much effort into caring for the feline as he made her believe. The poster wrote: “She stayed at their house with their other pet during the time so they didn’t have to travel to take care of her. So [Am I The A******] for not wanting to pay $2,000? I obviously realize now this person is not a friend and I no longer will consider them as such and treat them only as coworker.” Attorney Lindsay Richards, of Cofer and Connelly PLLC, told Newsweek that, if there was no agreed upon fee or rate or even a discussion about monetary compensation in exchange for watching the cat, then the poster’s friend is not suddenly entitled to a certain amount of money. “It also seems to me that if you were deployed serving our country with the military then certainly, they can watch your cat for free,” she added. Organizations like Dogs on Deployment help pairing military pets find short-term accommodations with foster families while their owners are deployed. AITA for not wanting to pay my friend $2K for watching my cat? byu/Swimming-Champion-90 inAmItheAsshole The post quickly went viral on social media and has so far received over 4,100 upvotes and more than 1,300 comments on the platform. One user, Jajjjenny, commented: “[Everybody s**** here] For 6 months, I would have compensated my friend for their time and effort. $300 was a nice gesture, but I probably would have paid $500 minimum. “I would just never expect a friend to watch my cat for free for 6 months. While cats are generally low maintenance, daily care is still involved. Your friend sucks as throwing a $2,000 invoice at someone out the blue is not it. But any costs should have been discussed up front.” International-Fee255 said: “If they wanted such an outrageous amount of money they should have expressed that before taking in your cat. That’s completely unreasonable. Block them and move on.” Firm-Ad5337 added: “I think both of you approached this poorly. So neither are a*******, just bad communication. Not wise to run a deal without proper terms. A lot of assumptions on both sides and here we are. Hope you learn your lesson from this.” Newsweek reached out to u/Swimming-Champion-90 for comment via Reddit. We could not verify the details of the case. Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
