data/texts/r-aitah.txt

TOPIC: AITA
TITLE: AITA for exposing a local “beloved” pet sitter that wasn’t showing up even though she said she was
CONTENT: 

Sorry this is a long one… I have used a pet sitter that came highly recommended starting back in 2021. At first she was fantastic, would send pics of my fur babies every time she came. Was reliable and always helped me out in a pinch.
Starting in 2023, I noticed she wasnt sending pics every time she was supposed to be at the house. This made me a bit suspicious. But the fur babies were happy, there was food and water for them, so I chalked it up to the fact I have been using her for a while and we had built trust.
Fast forward to November of 2024, I had to abruptly leave the country because my daughter was studying over seas and had a very serious medical emergency. My husband happened to out of town for work at the same time, so I hired her to care for our two cats for a few days.
When my husband got home, there was poop all up our stairs, by the front door, and down the hallway. He said it was an absolute mess and the whole house stunk. If the sitter was actually coming, there was no way she would have not been able to see it. My cats never pooped outside of the liter box, so this was highly unusual. I didn’t confront the person, I just paid her, figured it was a one off but I would never hire her again. And again, I was dealing w my daughter’s medical condition in a hospital in a foreign country that English isn’t their primary language, along with me dealing with breast cancer for 15 months. The cats were fine and I had bigger fish to fry at that point.
Fast forward to this past weekend.
Someone posted on a community FB page about a pet sitter, didn’t name names, but had the exact same experience as me. So I DM’d the OP asked her if it was so and so, she said that is exactly who it is and mentioned that quite a few others messaging her asking who it was and then saying they had the same experience with her.
On top of having poop in the house, the OP said this person did not show up on the cameras, so she confronted the pet sitter. The pet sitter denied it all, became defensive, started gas lighting the OP and eventually blocked her on FB.
This wasn’t a one off like I had initially thought and felt this couldn’t keep happening. This is neglectful, fraudulent, and abusive. So I commented on the post that if anyone wants to know who this sitter is to DM and I will let them know the name.
One person in particular reached out to me, she hired this pet sitter to care for her elderly cat. The sitter was to give her cat two shots a day. Again, the sitter didn’t show up on her cameras but only for two out of 5 days and when they got home the cat was sick, they had to rush it to the vet and unfortunately the cat had to be euthanized.
Now I am even more mad. Not only because of that story but I had probably 10 others come forward with similar stories as mine.
On Monday, I decided to make a post on the community page naming names. And again, more people came forward! Some remained anonymous because fear of retaliation. I decided to post a review on her business Facebook page and encouraged others to do so and of course, by this point word got around that I was exposing her. She posted on her page that she didn’t even know me and only watched my dog once. So I posted receipts. She took them down.
She messaged me privately saying that I am ruining her good reputation and costing her to lose business, that I am defaming her, bullying her and that if I don’t take my review down, she will have no other choice than to call her lawyer. I told her this is my truth of what happened and that if she can provide pictures of the pets for each and every time she was hired to watch them that I would gladly remove my review, post a public apology, and even put a sign on my lawn advertising for her. All she has to do is post receipts.
So far that has not been done. In all of this, it has come to my attention that her long time partner is in jail (long story), so it’s been a tough year and I am sure she is suffering from some mental health issues, which makes me feel bad. So AITA for exposing her so publicly?