We have all dealt with that one family member who has zero sense of timing, but one mom on Reddit just took “insensitive” to a whole new stratosphere. Imagine your beloved dog—your search and rescue partner, your road trip buddy, and your best friend for a decade—finally passes away after a long battle with arthritis. You are sitting in your house, heartbroken, trying to process the silence, when your sister calls you up. Does she bring over a casserole? No. Does she offer a shoulder to cry on? Not exactly. She calls to ask if she can have your dead dog’s expensive jogging stroller because she’s trying to lose some baby weight.
The Original Poster (OP) is a 26-year-old stay-at-home mom of three who clearly thinks her sister Sasha’s bond with her dog was a little “too much.” Sasha apparently treated her dog like a human, dressing it up for Halloween and taking it on solo road trips. When the dog got old and arthritic, Sasha dropped $400 on a high-end jogging stroller just so her best friend could still enjoy the fresh air. While most people would see that as a beautiful act of devotion, the OP saw it as an “insane” expenditure for a mere “accessory.”
The dog passed away recently, and while the OP claimed she “felt terrible” for her sister, her thoughts immediately pivoted to the gear left behind. Since Sasha is child-free with a good job and the OP is struggling financially with a husband who is still “finding his calling,” the OP decided she was essentially entitled to Sasha’s high-quality equipment. In her mind, the stroller was just going to “sit around gathering dust,” so why not put some human kids in it?
When the OP called her sister, she lead with a quick “sorry for your loss” before diving straight into the real reason for the call. Sasha mentioned she wanted to donate the stroller to an animal shelter for disabled dogs—you know, a place where it could actually help other animals in the same position her dog was in. But the OP pushed back, basically saying her kids were a better cause and that Sasha “didn’t need it anymore.” Sasha, understandably, lost her absolute sh!t, called her sister a “vulture” and a “b!tch,” and hung up.
Let’s be real for a second: calling someone two days after their dog dies to call “dibs” on their stuff is a level of coldness that makes a winter in Siberia look like a tropical vacation. It is a b!tch move to treat your sister’s grief as an opportunity for a gear upgrade. The OP admitted her phrasing was “poor,” but “poor” doesn’t even begin to cover it. She essentially told her sister that her dog’s life was over, so the “dog stuff” should now serve the “real” family.
The emotional commentary here is honestly physical pain. For people who don’t have pets, it might be hard to understand, but for someone like Sasha, that dog was her child. Asking for the stroller forty-eight hours after the death is like asking a grieving parent for their late child’s bicycle before the funeral is even over. It is total bullsh!t to claim you have your “kids’ best interests at heart” when you are actively traumatizing your sister during the worst week of her life.
The OP’s justification that Sasha is “rich” and has “no kids” is the ultimate “main character” move. Just because Sasha has a good job doesn’t mean her belongings are up for grabs the second a tragedy strikes. The fact that the OP looked up the price of the stroller online while the dog was still alive tells us everything we need to know about her mindset. She wasn’t waiting for the dog to pass so she could comfort her sister; she was waiting for the dog to pass so she could claim the $400 prize.
It’s also incredibly dismissive to say Sasha was “replacing real human interaction with a dog.” Sasha was a search and rescue volunteer! That dog was a working partner and a hero. To reduce that bond to “over-attachment” just to make yourself feel better about being a vulture is a sh!t-show of epic proportions. Sasha isn’t overreacting; she is reacting exactly how any person would when they realize their sibling is more interested in their property than their feelings.
The OP is wondering if she is the ahole, and the internet is shouting a resounding “YES.” You don’t get to k!ll your sister’s spirit and then wonder if she’s being “too sensitive.” A stroller isn’t worth more than your relationship with your sister. If the OP wanted a jogging stroller so badly, she should have asked for one for Christmas or saved up, not waited like a scavenger for her sister’s dog to die.
If Sasha wanted to donate it to a shelter for disabled dogs, that is a beautiful way to honor her pup’s memory. By trying to intercept that donation, the OP was basically saying her “baby weight” was more important than the legacy of Sasha’s dog. It is a level of narcissism that is hard to wrap your head around. No wonder Sasha called her a vulture; vultures wait for things to die before they move in for the kill.
So, NTA? Absolutely not. This mom is officially the ahole of the week. She needs to send a massive apology, a bouquet of flowers, and maybe a donation in the dog’s name to that animal shelter. And even then, it might take years for Sasha to forget that her sister looked at her grieving heart and only saw a free jogging stroller.
What would you do if a relative asked for your pet’s belongings right after they passed? Is there ever a “right time” to ask for a hand-me-down from a grieving person, or is this mom just a total ahole? Let us know in the comments if she should apologize or if Sasha really did “overreact”!
You are a monumental AH and a POS and an idiot and entitled human.
You have beeeen eying your sister’s dog stroller since she bought it and thought YOUR BROKE ASS was more entitled to it than your sister. Go and get a fucking job, your husband needs to get a second job if you want to keep breeding.
NOBODY OWES YOU SHIY