The global pandemic has resulted in many people stuck in living situations they never expected. They’re often forced to live temporarily with friends or relatives, which can cause all sorts of new opportunities for drama.
Toss in a little bit of pandemic-induced stress and a sprinkling of hormones, entitlement, and disregard for animal welfare, and you get this story.
The issue was shared on the r/AmItheAsshole subreddit by a woman who was being berated by her family after an incident with her pregnant younger sister.
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It’s important to note that this Redditor is not located in the United States and the animal cruelty laws basically don’t exist.
She is also the only member of her family other than her sister who lives in that country.
Which is why when her sister was kicked out of the home she shared with her boyfriend, she ended up staying with her pretty much by default.
They’ve never been close, but the pandemic had left the Redditor’s sister jobless, since she works in tourism.
They agreed that she could stay until the pandemic improved and the tourism industry begins to bounce back.
Unfortunately, two months into the arrangement, the younger sister discovered she was pregnant.
That’s when the issue of the Redditor’s dog was raised.
Or rather: that’s when the sister started to make the dog an issue.
The pooch in question is a two-year-old husky mix that the Redditor describes as a “sweetheart.”
Once the pregnancy became a thing, the sister began complaining about how having a “wild animal” around her baby would be bad.
“I told her it was my house and if she was not comfortable here, she could leave and my dog was staying no matter what,” says the Redditor.
The sister also seems to be insinuating a much longer stay than originally agreed upon.
If she still has most of her pregnancy ahead of her, then by the time there is an actual baby to worry about, one would hope she (and the world) would at least be beginning to consider post-pandemic next steps.
The homeowner continued to refuse to get rid of her dog, but a work trip resulted in her sister showing how far she’d go to try to get rid of it.
The trip was only for a few days, but when the Redditor returned, her dog was gone and the sister said she didn’t know where it had disappeared to.
Obviously, that excuse was less than believable.
After canvasing the neighbors, the owner learned that her sister had been seen leaving with the dog a couple of days prior.
Thankfully, the sister is evil, but not great at hiding her tracks. Due to her unemployment, she doesn’t just stay with her older sister, but she also shares an Uber account.
Low and behold, the Redditor found a random trip across town in the app’s history.
So she went to the same spot and began to ask around, finally discovering her dog at a restaurant that had taken her in.
“The owner took him after a ‘blonde pregnant woman’ left him leashed to a fence.”
While her older sister was away, the same sister who was giving her a temporary home, the woman had purposely gotten rid of the dog.
After explaining the situation to the restaurant owner, the Redditor had to pay him $500 just to get her dog back. (Remember: there aren’t really laws there to help in this situation.)
Then she went home and kicked her sister out of the house with enough cash to pay for a hotel room for a week.
Almost immediately, the sister complained to family and now the Redditor is being inundated with calls and messages berating her for choosing her dog over a baby.
She thinks it’s ridiculous that she would be expected to give up her beloved pet in favor of a temporary houseguest who went behind her back and endangered the dog — regardless of that person’s pregnant state.
In an added note, the Redditor explains that while she didn’t want to pay so much money for the return of her dog, there was little choice.
Just convincing the police to bother would require a lawyer’s involvement, and considering the area the restaurant was in, she wanted to get her dog out of there as quickly as possible.
So yeah, she’s Not The Asshole in this situation *at all*.
“NTA. You didn’t choose the dog over your sister. She stole from you and you discovered she couldn’t be trusted to live in your house. She got herself kicked out,” said FunkyOrangePenguin, “That ‘silly animal’ is your responsibility, your sister’s unborn baby is not.”
The Redditor let her sister stay, presumably for free, and not only did she take advantage of that, she also stole the dog and risked its life.
And still her older sister is a good enough person that in the midst of her anger, she still gave her enough money to pay for a hotel even after getting her dog back cost a small fortune.
The pregnancy is completely secondary to the actions the younger sister took here.
She even committed the crime of abandoning the dog on her sister’s dime ! It wasn’t her Uber account! That kind of stupid entitlement is likely the only reason the dog was found safely in the first place.
In a follow-up edit, the Redditor made it clear that her sister will never be staying with her again and any family who continues to side with her will be cut off from contact.
As for sister, if the boyfriend — and presumably, the father of the child — won’t take her back in, then she’ll have to stay with friends until she figures things out.
If their family truly values the life of that unborn baby so much, then perhaps they can pay for the costs of her moving out of the country to live with them. Her older sister has already been more than generous.
