To pet sit or not

[ericamanda01]

I am torn about watching my friends dogs this weekend. See the issue started when we went on vacation last year. I asked my best friend to watch our cats. I asked if she could come by every other day and check the food, water and clean out the litter box. She had no problem and we have each done this for each other in the past and never had an issue.
Well when we came home the cats had almost no water, very little food and the little box hadn't been cleaned in some time. We have one older cat that will not use the litter box if it's too full, so she went pee on the bathroom rug, to the point of soaking it. This lead me to believe that my friend had to of stop coming by a least a four or five days before we returned.
So we haven't asked her to watch them again, and she even stopped asking us to watch hers. But now she wants us to watch her dogs, which means going at 7 am, 3 and 8 pm to let them out.
So my question is would you watch her pets for her?

 

[poohandwendy]

Did she just ask you or was this planned a while ago? If she just asked you, I would tell her that won't work for you. If you had already said you would do it and are rethinking it, I think it would be wrong to go back on your word now.

Wow, I can't believe how irresponsible she was when she was pet sitting for you. Why on earth would she just blow it off like that? I think I would have mentioned something when I got home.

 

[WDSearcher]

Did you talk to her about the cat situation when you returned last time? Could it be that she just had the return date wrong and thought you were coming home earlier or something?

If you haven't mentioned the cat thing but that will be your basis for saying "no" from now on, you probably need to bring that up at some point and discuss it.

As for this weekend .... if you don't want to, simply say, "I'm sorry, we can't" and leave it at that. No further explanation required.

 

[ericamanda01]

She sprung it on me and DH while we were watching the super bowl. She knows that my husband will not say no, so we said we would do it. But I just don't feel like doing her a favor when she had such little respect for my pets. I know that I can't go back on saying yes, I just wanted to get some outside opinions. As far as her behavior during our vacation, I honestly can't figure it out.

 

[ericamanda01]

Did you talk to her about the cat situation when you returned last time? Could it be that she just had the return date wrong and thought you were coming home earlier or something?

If you haven't mentioned the cat thing but that will be your basis for saying "no" from now on, you probably need to bring that up at some point and discuss it.

As for this weekend .... if you don't want to, simply say, "I'm sorry, we can't" and leave it at that. No further explanation required.

She was my closest friend for years, but she did some things that made me lose a lot of respect for her. So now I don't bother telling her when I am hurt by something she's done. If I do she gives me some lame excuses that I find to be a waste of my time.

 

[WDSearcher]

Well, if that's the case, then it seem awfully silly for you to be helping her out. I'd still find out what happened. It could have been a totally innocent mistake.

 

[JessicaR]

Maybe she had other options lined up since she asked last minute? I would call and say you forgot about (insert prior commitment) and will not be able to be there for the dogs three times a day.

 

[ericamanda01]

Thanks everyone I appreciate all the advise. It's nice to get some outside perspectives.

 

[Kelliroo3]

Even though I would be annoyed with her about the cat situation I probably would still do it if you are able to. I would feel bad about not helping her out.