So this wasn’t on purpose, I swear.
I agreed to dog-sit for some super close family friends while they were out of town for the week. Enter: Peter (not his real name, but it fits). Peter is possibly the most high-maintenance dog I’ve ever met. He has to sleep in bed with a human, or he won’t sleep. He has his own room—because if you leave him unsupervised in the house while you’re gone, he will wreck everything. He requires constant attention. If you’re not petting him, he’ll nose you until you give in. And if you do pet him, you better not stop, or he starts the whole thing again.
Also? He’s not really potty trained. He knows to go outside—he just doesn’t always feel like it.
To make matters worse, I’m apparently highly allergic to something in their house. Every night I spent there, I had coughing fits, sneezing fits, couldn’t breathe properly, and was knocking back Benadryl like Tic Tacs. But I stuck it out because I love this family. They didn’t have another option. And here’s the kicker: I’m not even getting paid. This was purely an act of love (and probably poor judgment).
After a long week of dying slowly and begging Peter to please sleep without being spooned, I finally got a text from the mom yesterday:
“We will be home at midnight.“
I nearly cried. I packed my stuff, gave Peter dinner and a potty break, and finally went back to my house, with my dogs, and no airborne allergens. I went to bed proud of myself—I had survived Peter.
Then I woke up this morning around 10AM and noticed… no “thank you” text. No “we made it home” message. Weird. I checked her last message again:
“We will be home at midnight.”
And that’s when I realized… she meant MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. Not last night. Not the midnight I thought meant “they’ll be home early Friday morning.”
I had left Peter locked in his room… for 17 hours.
I bolted over to their house, fully expecting a scene from a horror movie.
Peter? Still alive. But not happy. He had shed what looked like a whole second dog from stress. He had peed. He had pooped. The room was… not okay. But thankfully, he was.
I cleaned everything up like a maniac, got him outside, gave him a treat, and prayed that the family never asks why the Febreze is half empty.
So yeah. TIFU by misunderstanding a text, abandoning a stage-five clinger dog for 17 hours, and proving that I will apparently suffer for free out of loyalty.
Moral of the story: Clarify which midnight people mean. And maybe get a pet-sitting contract next time.
TL;DR: Agreed to dog-sit the world’s most high-maintenance dog for free. Slept at his house all week despite major allergy attacks. Thought the family was returning at midnight last night—they meant tonight. Accidentally left the dog locked in his room for 17 hours. He’s fine, but the room looked like a crime scene. I cleaned it up just in time.
UPDATE: So it’s been about a day since the incident! The family is home and Peter is safe with his family.
The family actually ended up paying me which i’m actually super happy about! Around 300 for the week.
To answer a couple questions:
I’m pretty sure I was allergic to their laundry detergent because I ended up folding some of their laundry yesterday and my hands started getting super itchy!
Yes. I did hid the identity of the dog. I love this family. No i don’t really want them to find this post because we are in a lot of the same communities and it would just cause unnecessary drama.
Lastly. Yes. I used AI to edit my post. To all those saying I’m fueling a forrest burning machine. Sorry I guess. I’m on my summer break from college for one and also I was trying to take care of the crazy dog yesterday when I wrote the post so I didn’t have the time to edit it and make it super fluid. Sue me. But yes this story is 100% real unfortunately.
PS thanks for all the support I still feel super bad about leaving Peter for so long but the support made me feel like it would all be okay in the long run!
Comments
Nah, I couldn’t with that nuch nonsense for a dog. They gotta get that dog into better training and not expect someone else to put up with the nonsense.
Sounds like a Febreze allergy or maybe a mold problem :X
Also… I kinda feel bad for the dog. Not because of your accident but because his people carter to him instead of helping him not be, seemingly, afraid every second he’s alone and/or not touching someone.
Have you ever seen Home Movies?
It sucks but an honest misunderstanding…
And here’s the kicker — why did you need to use ChatGPT?
So… another AI post? Though this feels like one that could possibly be edited by AI based on a draft
I am a pet sitter by profession, I have accidentally left a day early twice. Granted I was only gone for about two hours before I figured it out and schleped my way back, but still, it happens.
Going to the bathroom in the house indicated a serious lack of training, a medical issue, or just not being allowed outside often enough.
It also sounds like he’s not being exercised enough and/or needs a lot more mental engagement. Dogs get needy and very destructive when they’re bored.
Did the family give you instructions on how much to walk him and what kind of games to play with him? Dog-sitting is not just being home with the dog.
I’m a pet sitter and I did something similar…
The woman calls me up Saturday morning and says “Hey can you stop by and feed/let the dogs out on Saturday?” I said sure! Thinking she meant the following Saturday because she called me on Saturday…. she didn’t say “Can you stop by and let them out today”….. So yeah I didn’t show up at all…. Luckily they were only gone for 24 hours… but yeah I felt like an asshole.. I ALWAYS clarify now.
Did u really hide the identity of a dog?
Read the first paragraph and immediately thought “Fuck that whole situation.”
Get someone else to sit that fucking chaos creature.
Thank you for protecting Peter’s identity
I dislike lack of clarity in communication. It might make me come off as a worrier sometimes but man, so many times have things gone wrong just because a lack of clarity and it’s so damn dumb.
It’s literally the reason why they added “read” to messages. At least then you know they opened the damn message.
I generally would stay until directly relieved by the parents/owners next time lol like I wouldn’t leave my nieces or nephew alone just cuz I knew my siblings were coming back in half an hr even. Chaos can occur in any window of time.
I love dogs and it makes me so angry that people don’t train them properly. If your dog cannot be comfortable without you, that is mistreatment. It’s a dog. Just because we bred wolves to be more docile doesn’t mean they’re not still animals. Soft dog owners need to take responsibility for things like this. People don’t want to admit that they have created a problem for themselves by treating a dog like a human. It’s not cute or funny, this animal doesn’t belong in the world anymore. And if they are willing to put someone else in the uncomfortable situation of dealing with a mess they have created, that person should not put up with it and tell the owners they are out of line. Never agree to watching animals without meeting them first. A dog running a house is like a toddler running a country.
The fact that you gave the dog an alias so you didn’t dox him 😭
Sounds like a scene from the book/movie “Marley and Me” by John Grogan …
emdashes 😒
Oh my. I feel for you. I’ve been in a similar situation. Fortunately I’m not allergic, and I didn’t have to sleep in the same bed with the dog. Ugh!
I’ve been a pet sitter for 11 years. I took a job for a high maintenance dog – Belgian malinois.
This dog did not stop the entire time I was there. I usually go to bed around 10:00 and get up at 6:00. The dog would not settle down. Would not shut up! I finally messaged the dogs owners and told him I was going to go home to sleep and I would be back in the morning.
man, that’s understandable and not just your FU, but theirs too. if it makes you feel better i’ve been there. agreed to sit for a friend for free, for a week. they told me her brother would drop off his dog early in the morning and let it out before it came inside. he apparently didn’t have time or didn’t feel like it so every single morning that week i woke up to a fat log of dog shit on the floor and pee streaks all up and down their hallway.
straight up, before work at 6am i’m on my hands and knees scrubbing their floors every day for free. to top it off, that dog had a habit of just running away when he was let out to potty. they had a fence that didn’t do anything a fence was supposed to do so after i scrubbed the floors, i’d let all the dogs out and then spend 30 minutes trying to find the damn thing. dog sitting is not for the weak
lol I laughed out loud so much that my high maintenance dog whined at me and needed pets
This is why I will always use the time 2359 — I think I got it from being a night shift nurse 😅
Wearing a face mask can help minimize allergic reactions if they’re caused by breathing in dander. I’ve had to do it sometimes when the pollen is really bad but we’ve needed to leave the windows open at night.
Yeah that was abolutely NOT YOUR FAULT.
Pro tip for travelers: Just tell people ‘We’ll be home very early on ____day.’
One time my mom scheduled a midnight flight and we missed it by a day😫 don’t be too hard on yourself. Midnights are hard for lots of people apparently lol
Fuck Peter