Mom Feels Bad For Giving Away Her Daughter's Dog Without Telling Her After The Girl Refused To Care For Him
The daughter was heartbroken, but what else could the mom do?
Elena Elisseeva / Shutterstock Being a teenager isn’t easy. There are a lot of new responsibilities that must be taken on. Adding anything unnecessary to those responsibilities can be impossible for some.
One 14-year-old proved that was true for her when she wanted a dog but was unable to care for him.
A mother asked if she was wrong after taking action when her daughter proved she could not take care of a dog.
“My 14-year-old daughter had been asking for a dog these past few months,” she said in her Reddit post. “My answer was always no. I know my daughter and knew she would not take care of a dog. I had a dog before having kids and knew how much responsibility it is.”
Unfortunately, the girl came home with a dog of her own accord.
“Last month, she came home with a six-month-old dog,” her mother said. “Someone was giving them away and posted it on Instagram. My daughter saw the post and met up with a woman at our local mall.”
The girl’s mother thought this would be the motivation she needed to become more responsible and actually care for the dog. It wasn’t.
“I had faith she would take good care of the dog, but since day one she refused to pick up after him,” she said. “I would wake her up early to walk him before school and she refused to get up. Instead of coming straight home to walk him, she goes out with friends. I get home after 5:00 and sometimes he had no food or water. It broke my heart.”
According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, this constitutes animal neglect. “Most states’ criminal animal cruelty statutes define a minimum standard of care which requires that an animal caretaker provide food and water.”
Despite the mother’s hopes that her daughter would rise to the occasion, she found herself searching for a new home for the dog.
When she realized that her daughter was not going to take care of the dog, the mom had a difficult decision to make. Due to her daughter’s negligence, she decided it was time to give the dog up.
“I told her every day that she needed to care for him or I was going to take him to a shelter,” she said. “Luckily, that was not the case.”
“I gave him to a lovely retired woman who lives alone,” the mom said, explaining the serendipitous way she was able to keep the dog out of a shelter. “She is my co-worker’s aunt and says we can visit.”
Despite the happy ending for the dog, the woman’s daughter took it incredibly hard.
“Right now, my daughter is in her room crying and refusing to talk to me. She came home and he was gone. I feel awful,” she said.
Even though the mom felt ‘awful,’ commenters agreed that she did the right thing.
The mother in this situation truly felt bad for doing something that broke her daughter’s heart. However, as fellow Reddit users pointed out, she did what was best for the dog — and, in the long run, probably for her daughter as well.
“I was prepared to type that of course it’s wrong to rehome a child’s beloved pet … But yeah, no. This wasn’t your daughter’s dog. This was a random dog that your daughter brought into your home, despite you saying dogs weren’t allowed,” one person said.
Truthfully, this pup might not have had a chance if he wasn’t rehomed. It was best for him to go to a loving owner where he would be cared for. The woman’s daughter can still visit him, and hopefully see what a difference proper care can make.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.