melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)
melannen ([personal profile] melannen) wrote in [community profile] agonyaunt 2025-04-01 04:21 pm (UTC)

That The Cut article Prudie mentioned is terrifying. Dear The Cut author: if having a baby means you start actively mistreating your pet, if your only modes of interaction with another living creature are "in love with" and "resentful", you probably shouldn't have had a baby either. (Also: if your husband is unable to even make sure the cat's litter box is emptied and water bowl is full during your maternity leave, you probably shouldn't have a husband either.)

Anyway, this is tough, because you absolutely won't be able to provide the level of care Aunt Gemma is expecting if you resent the dog and your husband isn't being realistic about what it would involve. On the other hand, if this dog is bad-tempered, not housebroken at age six, and destructive, he's probably not got better options - nobody will choose this dog if given a choice of a different dog, and the odds somebody else doing it for the money will love him more than you are low.

So, yeah: take the money, use some of it to get Alfie a reasonably comfy home of his own that can be completely separated from your home, and either think of yourselves as his paid petsitter who checks in twice a day or hire someone to do it. It won't be ideal, but also a 90+ year old woman adopting a long-lived puppy she can't train properly was going to result in a bad outcome for the dog regardless.

If the money's not realistically enough to do that and leave enough left over to be worth the trouble of setting that up, turn it down.

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