Said It Here

Pet sitter neglected my animals while away

Paid sitters and friends often abandon basic animal care, stealing supplies and leaving pets in filthy, dangerously hot conditions without food. Returning to extreme temperatures and overwhelming waste distresses the animals and leaves owners dealing with the fallout of broken trust.

Overview
People affected3 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found6 items attempted
Community agreement492 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    asking family members like brothers or stepmothers to watch pets instead
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    installing home cameras to check in on pets remotely
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    cutting ties or ghosting the unreliable friend
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Submitting applications to rescues
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    Ignoring the owner's message
    Did this help you?
  6. 6
    Taking the cat inside or keeping it
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/cats3 people · September 2026

“We came home tonight, my home didn’t even smell like cats, if you’ve ever smelled tonsil stones, it smelled like that but…. Everywhere.”source ↗

“Our female cat hates all the animals and lives in the sunroom, we came home and it’s blazing hot in there…”source ↗

Ok_List_5002 · r/cats · 253 upvotes

“Your friend stole the dogs food and didn’t go over to care for your animals once.”source ↗

Vivid_Motor_2341 · r/cats · 189 upvotes

“This cat has been coming to my house for over two weeks at all hours. He’s woken me up in the middle of the night meowing at my bedroom window.”source ↗

“He isn’t chipped or neutered and I really want to refrain from lecturing this person about cat overpopulation and how overworked shelters are”source ↗

“It took his owners a week to notice he had a paper collar on, or a week to message.”source ↗

beaniebaby22909768 · r/cats · 50 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised