'I looked that man... in the eye and said, "I don't know that cat"': 20+ Tenants who hid their pets from their landlords explain what happened when they were finally discovered

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 27, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

We'll do anything for our pets. We buy them treats and toys, we kiss them and snuggle them, we drive them to the vet or to their favorite places to play. It's so great to have a fuzzy little dude running around your house who loves you like crazy, bites you sometimes, and always wants to cuddle up and hang out with you. 

However, a lot of landlords don't care how cute your cat, dog, bird, or rabbit is: they're simply not allowed in your apartment. So some people lie to their landlords, insisting they don't have pets, when really they have a cat who keeps peeking through the blinds, or a dog who absolutely must bark at the delivery truck every day. For some people, this creates problems with neighbors. In extreme cases, the residents get served eviction notices! But in many cases, as you can read about below, the landlords have a soft spot for pets, and they'll let them stay. For example, one person was hiding their small dogs, only for their landlord to reveal that she had six chihuahuas running around her place! You can read that tale and bunch of other delightful and funny stories below. 

Then, read about some very funny reasons people got fired, such as the woman who gave her boss a false doctor's note… from an entirely different state. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10420304384
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Those who hid pets from a landlord and the landlord found out, what happened?
    via u/Badger_x
  • 03
    Jager_Candy We had actually signed a 'pet addendum' that the agent gave us and paid an additional 'pet deposit'. Turns out the landlord had no knowledge of this, didn't. give the go ahead for an addendum to be created, and didn't allow pets at all.
    via u/Jager_Candy
  • 04
    Fortunately we had copies. (and copies of the emails. the agent sent us with the document attached). They asked us for proof of all vaccinations & parasitics from the vet (per the fake 'addendum') or threatened to take the whole pet deposit. We provided the documents and they didn't take any of the 'pet deposit'.
    via u/Jager_Candy
  • 05
    Guess the agent screwed up royally but it was a good lesson to learn - keep absolutely everything, even if you don't think it's necessary.
    via u/Jager_Candy
  • 06
    BlackLakeBlue... We were looking at an apartment and realized they didn't take pets. At all. The owner really liked us; newly married, very polite. She asked if we had a picture of her. It was 1991, but I had a few wedding pictures and a couple of photos of Sammy in my purse. She said, "She looks very small. Must be a miniature
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 07
    Siamese." I was like, "No, just cat sized." She said, "I'm CERTAIN she's a miniature. I COULD ALLOW a miniature."
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 08
    So our lease says, Miniature Siamese, and she didn't ask us to pay any extra. And that was what it was like in the olden days, kids!
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 09
    Kinda the opposite, but a fun story: I was touring an apartment and on the screening call they asked if I had any pets. I was honest and said that I was a teacher and I have a guinea pig class pet. The school turns off the heat at night, so he comes home. with me each day. No problem with that.
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 10
    I get there for the tour and everyone in the leasing office is looking at me weirdly, including the person I was meeting with, who was a parent in the classroom next door. She asks me about pets and seems apprehensive, and I tell her it's just Jigsaw the guinea pig that her son is obsessed with. She gets this moment of realization, cracks up, and excuses herself.
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 11
    I then hear her in the back room of the office saying "guys! It's not a pot bellied. pig, it's a GUINEA PIG!" Yeah, whoever did the phone screening only wrote "pig" on the form and they thought I was bringing an animal right off the farm. The leases didn't specify no farm animals, so they would have accepted me with a farm pig, but alas, I just had my dumb-as-rocks piglet.
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 12
    When she returned, she tore up the pet paperwork, waived all fees, thanked me for giving the leasing office some excitement, and made me promise to let her know if I ever decided to upgrade to a larger pig variety. Edit: the pig in question
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 13

    Meet Jigsaw the guinea pig!

    Cheezburger Image 10420295936
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 14
    2nd edit: yes, I know guinea pigs should be in pairs. Jigsaw had a brother at my parents house and my mom and I taught at the same school, so they were together daily. Different ages and couldn't be in the same cage, but spent most time cage-to-cage. We always had solo pigs. growing up, but learned our lesson when I moved out and never had solo pigs. after that
    via u/BlackLakeBlueFish
  • 15
    wayfaringpanda Oooh, I had a good one happen. It was my first apartment, and my gf's. friend dumped a kitten on me as a birthday present because she'd heard me talking about getting a cat and found a box of them on the side of the road. (I loved that cat, but don't do this kids.)
    via u/wayfaringpanda
  • 16
    It took six months before the property manager managed to catch sight of the cat in the window while walking the property. I got an email asking about it, I lied and said I just got the cat and hadn't had a chance to notify them yet, they said cool the pet deposit is $200. So I cut them a check and dropped it off at the office, expecting that to be that.
    via u/wayfaringpanda
  • 17
    Two weeks later, I get a knock at the door. It's the property manager with a pet gift basket, telling me that my cat was the reason they caught an employee embezzling tens of thousands of dollars - the off-cycle check knocked over the precarious tower of
    via u/wayfaringpanda
  • 18
    cards one of the receptionists had been maintaining, and it all came tumbling down. Kitty got lots. of treats that night lol
    via u/wayfaringpanda
  • 19
    kestrel63 I lived in a small basement apartment and rescued a sick, elderly cat. He wasn't capable of jumping up into the windowsills so I didn't have to worry about that. I came home one night around 3 am and caught the building supervisor (lived across the hall from me) taking out trash and there was a cat standing in the doorway. We both froze for a
    via u/kestrel63
  • 20
    moment and then I told him I'd keep quiet about his secret cat if he would let me hide mine during inspections and he agreed. Now we have a couple of nearly identical cats so they get merged into a single pet
    via u/kestrel63
  • 21
    on applications. My spouse and I have started collecting letters about our cleanliness as pet owners whenever we move to give to the next landlord and so far it's worked out well.
    via u/kestrel63
  • 22
    Moeman101 My landlord found my hamster when getting the apartment master keys that i found on the floor from one of them employees. I found it at night and took the keys. Then first thing in the morning i called them. They wanted the keys asap to where they wanted to enter my apartment when I was at
    via u/Moeman101
  • 23
    work. They saw the hamster and said nothing as I saved them $1000s from having to change locks.
    via u/Moeman101
  • 24
    batai2368 I had a landlord try that stunt on me! I told him about my cat and even had the cat's name included on the lease. Landlord met the cat many times and the property manager had a picture of my cat on her office wall. I moved out after 4 years and my landlord said to me during our final walkthrough "Well, we still have to settle the issue with the cat. You
    via u/batai2368
  • 25
    never told me you had one so you owe me 4 years of pet rent." I was stunned!! He pulled out a fake lease that said I had no pets and if I wanted one, it was $50 a month. Luckily, I still had all my paper files with me and pulled out my copy, signed by both of us, with the cat's name on it.
    via u/batai2368
  • 26
    BiscottiLeading At one apartment we lived at you could have cats but not dogs. I had a very large black cat. One day I was bringing him home from the vet and carried him in my arms. The property manager saw me and when I went back out to my car to get his carrier and my purse the property manager told me I wasn't allowed to have dogs.
    via u/BiscottiLeading
  • 27
    When I told him I didn't have any dogs he asked about the black dog he just saw me carrying. I laughed and told him that was my cat and he could come see if he wanted. He told me it was alright he believed me. Weeks later the property manager saw me and told him he saw my cat on the balcony one day and it was one of the biggest cats he had ever seen.
    via u/BiscottiLeading
  • 28
    SisterShining R... I had a friendly stray cat - probably a pet someone dumped - who decided to move into my place when I was renting while in grad school. The landlord was very hands off and very rarely came around, but after I'd had this cat for months, he did stop in because my AC was broken.
    via u/SisterShiningRail***
  • 29
    I'd planned on making sure the cat was outside when the landlord was going to come by, but then he just popped up unannounced. Because it was hot as inside my house, I'd opened my doors for air circulation. Landlord walks in and sees the cat lounging on my living room floor, and he was like "oh I didn't know you had a cat." I looked that man d ad in the eye and said "I don't
    via u/SisterShiningRail***
  • 30
    know that cat." Idk if he believed me or not, but he shrugged and nothing more was said about it. The cat and I continued living there. for like three more years.
    via u/SisterShiningRail***
  • 31
    areyoukidding... My parents hid a cat from their landlord in their first apartment, which had a no- pets policy. The cat insisted on sleeping in a window where everyone could see her. Obviously the landlord found out but he never said anything about it other than "that's a pretty cat you've got there!"
    via u/areyoukiddingmern
  • 32
    ChicSirena My landlord found out when a repair guy saw my dog's bed during a routine check. I tried playing it off as if I was just pet-sitting, but the landlord didn't buy it. They ended up charging me a pet deposit retroactively, which was better than getting kicked out.
    via u/ChicSirena
  • 33
    wolfhollow_ I never hid pets myself, but I worked in a nebulous leasing / maintenance role during college and had a couple run ins with unfriendly dogs that were not supposed to be in an apartment. Nothing like having a large dog appear out of nowhere to bark at you when you're just there to update the fire extinguisher.
    via u/wolfhollow_
  • 34
    We also had people abandon pets we didn't know were there a number of times and that was always horrible to varying degrees. There were a couple times we found really starved animals and didn't know if they were neglected before or if the people bailed and didn't tell us.
    via u/wolfhollow_
  • 35
    Blissful_Doll My cats all look alike, so my landlord only knows about two; there are four. They sit in the windows, never all at once, so I can't deny I have them. I also have some life- size cat statues on my windowsills, so it looks like I have more. Management has checked but never saw my real cats, only the fakes, and they commented on how real they look.
    via u/Blissful_Doll
  • 36
    daabilge My landlord in college allowed caged pets but had a "no zoo animals" policy. He tried to evict me over the fact that I own a snake. Ended up getting student legal services involved, they argued that "no zoo animals" is absurdly vague and that because I am not a zoo, my snake is not a zoo animal.
    via u/daabilge
  • 37
    Curtofthehorde Not the "Landlord" but the oldest resident of the trailer park was running the property for them. We have a Chihuahua and Pug. When she met them she said, "Don't worry about it. I don't pay it either." Then we met her 6 chihuahua's!
    via u/Curtofthehorde
  • 38
    r College apartment complex. My dumbass roommate found a cat on the side of the street and decided to adopt it (even though I was allergic to it). It scratched up the 2 couches and walls in the main shared space.
    via u/ninetimesoutaten
  • 39
    The way the apartment found out is she cut a square in the window blinds for the cat to look out - on the first floor. An apartment employee walked by and saw the cat sitting in the window. Ended up costing her ~$4k in fines and replacement couches.
    via u/ninetimesoutaten
  • 40
    TheBubbleSqu... My landlord came in to the apartment one day to talk about something (can't remember what). The cat I'd gotten about 3 months prior jumped in through the window and started winding in between the landlord's legs, purring like a tractor. The landlord looked down and then looked at me. I looked at him, d ad in the
    via u/TheBubbleSquirrel
  • 41
    eyes. Then we both just maintained a weird amount of eye contact while we finished the conversation and he left, and we never spoke of it again. When I moved out the landlord returned more than my original deposit (assuming accidentally). I think he just liked having an easy, generally trouble-free tenant and chose to let it slide.
    via u/TheBubbleSquirrel
  • 42
    mike1883 My mother-in-law was evicted from her apartment. She had to move in with a friend and give away her dogs. Me and my gf have one of them.
    via u/mike1883
  • 43
    FashionElegan... I tried to hide my cat from my landlord once, but he ended up loving my pets! Now they get better treatment than I do.
    via u/FashionElegance
  • 44
    kayo_popsicles I got evicted. I had a 6 month old cat I wasn't supposed to, and she got in the windowsill one day when I was at work. They said their policy was due to their maintenance man having severe allergies, but they had another building I could move into that did allow pets. Additional bedroom, sun porch, dishwasher, and
    via u/kayo_popsicles
  • 45
    central air for only $100 more in rent, which I was fine with. Moved to the new place, no problem. But? SAME maintenance man with the supposed several allergies
    via u/kayo_popsicles
  • 46
    Burr32 We had a tenant move in with no pets and explained if they wanted to get one, speak with us and we would come to an agreement. Several months later the tenant posted pictures on Facebook with their "new member of the family!"
    via u/Burr32
  • 47
    We were like uhhh, hello, what did we talk about? They didn't want to pay the pet deposit and got rid of the pup lol
    via u/Burr32
  • 48
    Unus_Annus2... put our cat in the bathroom while the landlord came over and she somehow got out and was sitting on the top of the couch directly in front of the door, thankfully landlord. found it funny and said she didn't care bc it wasn't her rules
    via u/Unus_Annus2020
  • 49
    SassyCatLady... My parents had a "no pet" clause for the tenat that lived in the downstairs apartment of our house. His daughter left her toy poodle for him to watch for a few days and my dad saw him.
    via u/SassyCatLady442
  • 50
    According to my mother and the tenant (who was an amazing person) my father got down on the ground with the dog saying "oh whose a good boy, it's you!" The dog was allowed to visit anytime.
    via u/SassyCatLady442

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