Though we love all types of animals, the reality is that the world is full of folks who exclusively love either cats or dogs. So if they’re a cat person, like redditor u/TheCornStarMum, they might ask their guests to leave their canine pals at home. Ignoring this request and bringing your dog to their party anyway can lead to a lot of friction.
The OP shared how her party took a turn for the dramatic after her (now ex) friend’s dog dug up her garden and ate something that made it ill. However, the redditor wasn’t all that upset. Scroll down for the full story, and to see how the internet reacted to what happened. Bored Panda reached out to the author of the viral post, redditor u/TheCornStarMum, who was kind enough to answer our questions. Read on to see what she told us.
Part of being a good guest means respecting your host's boundaries, even when it comes to pets
Image credits: Yulia_Panova (not the actual photo)
A woman turned to the internet for their verdict after sharing how her friend's dog fell sick at her garden party
Image credits: kegfire (not the actual photo)
She then shared some additional information about what happened next
Image credits: Pressmaster (not the actual photo)
The hostess later shared a very important update with her readers about her friend and her dog
Image credits: TheCornStarMum
"I think it’s best that we keep our distance from each other"
We were curious about what the author of the AITA story thought about the comments that the other redditors wrote. "With so many comments, I haven’t been able to read every single one, but I read a lot of them, most made me feel better about my choices, some just made me laugh," u/TheCornStarMum told Bored Panda.
"Multiple of my friend group that came to the party have now seen it [the post], almost everyone is on my side, but some don’t like that I aired it so publicly, but obviously I didn’t think it would blow up as it had and didn’t expect them to see it," she shared just how visible her post has become, both online and in real life.
The redditor explained that her ex-friend, Suzanne, "has always been difficult." She is a friend by association, one of her closest friend's friend. "I don’t know why she has such a hard time with my boundaries, but this isn’t the first time she’s caused problems in our friendship group by bringing her dog where it isn’t wanted," u/TheCornStarMum told us.
Bored Panda wanted to know if there was any hope for the friendship in the future, and what would need to happen for things to be put right. "I think I’m done with Suzanne. If she’s at an event I’m at, I’ll be civil obviously, but her lack of respect really frustrates me," u/TheCornStarMum opened up.
"If she genuinely apologized, it would help in some ways, but I think it’s best that we keep our distance from each other. I’d really like it if she offered to pay for the damages to my garden, but I’ve heard she plans to sue me for her vet bills, so I don’t see that happening, although if she does sue, I’ll obviously counter sue. I was tempted to sue regardless, but I decided last night that I’d only sue if she did it first. So we’ll see, I guess!"
The story made a massive splash in the AITA online community, and we wanted to get the OP's take as to why the post became as popular as it did. In her opinion, the title may have had to do a lot with it going viral.
"I had a lot of people tell me it was misleading, which in hindsight I guess it sort of is, but I was using my ex-friend's words," she said that if she were to post the story again, she would probably use quotation marks.
"Other than that, I don’t really know why it [the story] exploded. I guess it had a good balance between people thinking I was the AH to people thinking I wasn’t, to cause debate."
Image credits: Samson Katt (not the actual photo)
All dog owners have to be aware of what foods make them ill
It’s essential that owners keep a watchful eye on their pooches’ diets. There are a lot of food items that are toxic to dogs. According to the PDSA, some unsafe fruits and vegetables include avocado, cherries, corn on the cob, garlic, grapes and raisins, grapefruit, leeks, lemon and lime, mushrooms, onion, plums, raw potatoes, rhubarb, and unripe tomato. Potato and tomato plants are also to be avoided!
Meanwhile, among the vegetables that dogs can safely eat, you’ll find broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, celery, green beans, peas, boiled or steamed potatoes, and sweetcorn (off the cob!).
The PDSA notes that safe-to-eat fruit includes apples and pears that have been de-seeded and cored, bananas and strawberries in small amounts (they’re full of sugar!), blueberries, cranberries, mango and nectarine and peach (without the pit and skin), oranges without the skin and seeds, and watermelon once you remove the rind and seeds.
Image credits: Rarnie McCudden (not the actual photo)
True friends care about each other's boundaries, no matter the situation
To put it bluntly, a real friend is someone who cares about you enough to respect your boundaries. As we’ve covered on Bored Panda previously, true friendship is built on trust and mutual respect.
These relationships can’t be one-sided: they require both sides to give, not just take. If there’s a lack of balance and you feel like you’re constantly being used for favors or walked over, odds are that you might be dealing with a fair-weather pal.
Some other signs that someone’s a fake friend include them talking about you behind your back (nobody likes two-faced people!), a lack of support when you truly need it most, and an unwillingness to celebrate your successes. A massive tendency to gossip and jealousy are red flags.
Meanwhile, true friends will be with you through the ups and downs of your life, and will keep your secrets when you ask them to. A general rule of thumb is that you can feel completely vulnerable and authentic around them. And if you feel like you have to constantly watch what you say around someone, the odds are that the relationship is very superficial.
Image credits: William Fortunato (not the actual photo)
The entire situation escalated beyond anyone's expectations
The conflict escalated after redditor u/TheCornStarMum’s friend demanded that she explain what plants her dog had dug up and eaten. The OP explained that she’s unsure because her gardener takes care of the crops. She eventually passed on all the information the gardener had to the pet parent. The dog is at the hospital but is expected to make a full recovery. Meanwhile, the OP ended up blocking her (ex) friend after she bombarded her with “nasty calls and texts.”
The redditor’s story went viral on the AITA online community. At the time of writing, her post had gotten over 20.1k upvotes. The general consensus was that the OP had done everything in her power to ensure that the dog wasn’t at her party. She had made it clear that pets weren’t welcome at the social gathering. And she had even asked her friend to take her dog back home. Healthy boundaries were set and outright ignored.
As some redditors pointed out, her friend wasn’t even watching the dog. Others noted that the dog has an irresponsible owner. The overall mood was that u/TheCornStarMum did nothing wrong. And even though people were sad that the dog got ill, it shouldn’t have been at the event in the first place.
The woman engaged the other members of the AITA community in the comments
Most people were on the author's side. Here's what some of them had to say
