Deciding to re-home a pet is no easy manner. It is incredibly traumatic for the fur baby.
So, the only reason one should do that is if they can ensure the pup will have a better life.
This Redditor encountered this very issue with their friend. So they turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for moral judgment.
They asked:
“AITA for refusing to return my friend’s dog?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“My friend left Maryland for England and left his dog (Venus) to me.”
“Originally he left temporarily and asked me to take her in for a few months but he called me up and told me he wasn’t going to be able to bring her as he couldn’t find a dog friendly place and that I could keep her if I wanted.”
“I told her I’d be glad to and that was that.”
“She’s been with me for 2.5 years now and she is so gentle and calm. She never barks and is the best hiking buddy ever and my gf adores her.”
“My friend called me and asked for her back. They found a new place that allow dogs and are finally settled enough to get her back and asked me to help ship her.”
“I said he told me she was mine and he said yes and that it was because of his housing circumstances that he couldn’t control and that his son really misses her.”
“He offered to pay me $2000 for her but I don’t want to give and told him so. He wasn’t happy and hung up.”
Redditors gave their opinions on the situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors agreed OP was not the a**hole.
“NTA.”
“A dog isn’t a book you can come to collect when you feel like you want to read it again.”
“She left the dog with you for 2.5 years and feels like having it back? She probably doesn’t remember your friend anymore, or might resent her for abandoning her. Keep her and give her the home you have been giving her until now. Who knows if she decides to move again and do this to her yet again.”
“Edit: 1k?! Thanks kind strangers of reddit!”
“Edit 2: An award? Thanks!”
“Edit 3: my first silver! Thank you!!!” ~ hotaku_kun
“Rehoming a dog is an incredibly traumatic experience for the dog. Now after 2.5 years the friend wants to come back for the dog he abandoned and put the poor thing through it all over again. No way. Let that pooch live out it’s days in peace.” ~ Trashmanjoe
“And not just rehome. Ship across thousands of miles, have her sit in quarantine for potentially weeks if anything goes wrong with the paperwork, and then hope that she maybe remembers her old family? Even in a best case scenario that dog will have a traumatic 36 hours of traveling and feeling abandoned.”
“Absolutely NTA.” ~ lopingwolf
OP was the only one actually taking care of that dog.
“NTA, please keep taking care of that sweet pup that is now yours!”
“I had to move and had to take a 12h flight (with my dog ofc, I would have never left without him). He was too big and had to go into a kennel separated from me… I couldn’t even sleep the whole trip wondering how he was doing.”
“He lost a bit of his ‘voice’ for a day so I assume the poor thing barked a lot, then at least for a month he had very bad separation anxiety.”
“The kennel was a nice place for him to sleep and lay down but then he wouldn’t even get near. All understandable, my point is: all this was for just 12h, your dog already processed the first abandonment of their owner.”
“Don’t make them go through the same trauma again.” ~ sync19waves
“I moved over 3000 miles, and at the time had a cat I had had for only a month, a chinchilla, and a lizard.”
“My lizard had to be shipped UPS overnight (common with reptiles) and had my friend’s mom on the other side waiting until UPS opened to get him. I had her on the phone while crying rivers while she opened the box, and he was fine.”
“Then, on the flight over my chinchilla had to go in cargo and I had to pay for a special airline to keep temperature right, vet appts, and then watch my kitty under my seat.”
“I didn’t sleep at all when usually I konk out. It was so damn stressful, and kitty was so stressed he ripped through the carrier upon landing. I would never voluntarily do any of that again, even though it was literally to receive life saving medical treatment I desperately needed.”
“It’s really traumatic and it’s not just a jaunt across town for these animals- absolutely everything would change and he may not remember his first family or only remember that he cannot trust them!”
“My animals definitely had an adjustment period, and I was there with them the whole time except for a few days for my lizard.”
“This former owner is way too nonchalant about the dog when Pup is a living, sentient creature with attachments, routine, and love. I had to leave my family cats behind at my mom’s when I moved and wouldn’t have put them thru all that except if she had died and left them- absolutely not on a whim years later.”
“It sucks so much how many people see their pets as things and not living creatures :(“ ~ snailvarnish
“Britain and England especially are insane dog lovers! fun fact, England was actually the first country in the world to start a welfare society for animals- the RSPCA in 1824. it’s definitely not a cultural thing to hate animals here lol there’s thousands of well-known rescues like Dog’s Trust, RSPCA, Battersea etc. He should adopt one of the many dogs in need of homes.” ~ psycheviper
“I’ve seen that quarantine show about England and inbound animals. It’s brutal to the dog in quarantine. There’s so many owners there who couldn’t get their dog out of quarantine and couldn’t pay the holding fees or the vet fees to have it corrected and had to have their pets shipped back. Quite a few that were abandoned due to the fees too.”
“Not to mention what if the dog gets sick from air travel? So many have had to have emergency vet visits in quarantine because the pet got so sick from flying or got injured in transit.”
“Poor pup doesn’t deserve that after being abandoned for 2.5 years.” ~ LittlestEcho
Dogs deserve better.