Naive mom hires friend with "housing troubles" to watch her cats, she comes home to find her house trashed and 1,100 extra miles on her car: 'She moved her own cat in, and also her boyfriend'

Author image for Blake Seidel
Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
Jan 22, 2026 11:00 AM EST

Are friends supposed to invite their boyfriends and leave your house disgusting after being paid to watch your cats? Asking for a friend.

Finding a trustworthy cat sitter is not as easy as it sounds. If you don't have a friend that can do it, you're forced to go through an app or a service to have one recommended to you. Even if they're verified, it's still basically letting a stranger live in your house and care for your kitties who you care for more than life itself. But our story today teaches us that even getting a "friend" to take care of everything can end in disaster. 

Imagine coming home after a month of being away to find your home literally trashed. 80% of her winter firewood burned. Four loads of dishes left around the kitchen and in the sink. On top of that, the friend tried to negotiate to stay longer under the purrfect guise of 'We're worried about you and your health!'. Oh, did we mention the fact that she brought her boyfriend to stay there without asking? Yeah.

After much convincing, the mom was able to get her friend out and her house cleaned, but it just goes to show that not everyone is trustworthy. Some people will walk all over you if they can, and that's exactly what happened here. We hope she never has to deal with her, or her mooching boyfriend, ever again.

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  • 01

    My "friend" took advantage of me when I was in the hospital

    Messy house and yard in Flint, Oregon, and a cat, including '[They] took absolute advantage of me while I was at my weakest
    via Bruno Guerrero / Unsplash

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    I'm six weeks out right now and I can still barely walk. At the last minute, my hired pet sitter cancelled on me and I was desperate to find a replacement.
    via jessibook
  • 03
    I offered that money to a friend who was having housing difficulties. She was to take care of my house and pets.
    via jessibook
  • 04
    I let her stay in my home while I was gone, and I even bought $300 worth of groceries for her.
    via jessibook
  • 05
    The agreement was for her to take care of my kittens and fish and to have the house tidied up before I got home.
    via jessibook
  • 06
    Playful moments for cats in pet hotel with pet sitter. Game on sofa with female sitter, pet service
    via dimaberlinphotos

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 07
    My car would be there in case of an emergency, but otherwise please avoid driving it; it's a lease and I have an allotment of miles I can drive before I have to pay extra.
    via jessibook
  • 08
    After I was admitted into the hospital, she moved her own cat in, and also her boyfriend in.
    via jessibook

  • This is the first red flag. We're okay with you staying there, but we never said anything about your boyfriend. It's already stressful enough to have someone staying at your place, but then inviting someone else to stay there that you don't know at all? That's crossing a line. But what else can you do when you're already out? There's not much she could have done, and if she pushed too hard, she might have lost her only cat sitter.

  • 09
    When I got home, my house was an absolute disaster. Dishes piled up in the sink (took me four loads to clear), dishes and leftover food scattered around the house, cat v it left to dry on the floor, bags of cat litter clumps in the hallway, half full trash bags left in the entry way, stains on the couch, floors and counters filthy.
    via jessibook
  • 10
    There was a 3 foot circle of wood ash on the floor around the fireplace. They used up about 80% of my winter wood pile, so now I don't have enough wood to last me the rest of the winter.
    via jessibook
  • 11
    So here I am, post surgery and barely able to walk, scrubbing the floors, doing dishes, taking out the trash, sweeping and mopping and vacuuming.
    via jessibook
  • 12
    But there's only so much I can physically do before I'm in massive pain. Well, you guessed it - I have been in massive pain every night since that first night doing too much trying to clean up after her.
    via jessibook
  • 13
    It hasn't even been a week. She tried to negotiate with me to stay at my house for several more weeks or longer, "to help with the kids and take care of you." No.
    via jessibook

  • Oh, right, because they helped so much already? There's messy, and then there's dirty. Messy is not putting your dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, or leaving the dishes out to clean them the next day. These people are dirty. And being dirty, especially in someone else's house, is frankly pawsitively disrespectful.

  • 14
    Not a chance. But I'm so weak right now that I had to play it as tactfully as I could.
    via jessibook
  • 15
    What resulted was her staying an extra two days, her useless boyfriend sitting on my couch, eating my food, watching me clean up and not offering to help.
    via jessibook
  • 16
    Messy kitchen with pile of dirty dishes. Compulsive Hoarding Syndrome
    via brebca

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 17
    She, at least, cooked food for me the next day. I called my two besties, a married couple, and asked them to come by to ensure these two left my house when the Lyft arrived to take them home.
    via jessibook
  • 18
    I told them hours beforehand to pack up and be ready to leave. They waited until ten minutes prior to finally start packing, and the Lyft driver had to wait a half hour for them.
    via jessibook
  • 19
    As they were leaving, the boyfriend was questioning my friend and asking him how long they were staying.
    via jessibook
  • 20
    He grey rocked with excellence. The boyfriend was all, "I'm just concerned about her and want to make sure she has the help she needs.
    via jessibook
  • 21
    And I'll be back to help out as much as I can." That asshole did absolutely nothing to help and made everything harder on me!
    via jessibook
  • 22
    As soon as they were gone, my real friends sent me to bed and helped clean up my kitchen and living room.
    via jessibook
  • 23
    My kids also helped out. Even with that, I would still end up having to spend time over the next several days cleaning up after them.
    via jessibook
  • 24
    I still haven't tried to remove the couch stains, but at least my son vacuumed all the crumbs and such out of the cushions and cleaned up the fireplace.
    via jessibook
  • 25
    And then, I discovered my car. had given her permission for two non-emergency trips into the city, about 30 miles away.
    via jessibook
  • 26
    She also admitted to using my car "a little bit" while I was gone. I was too weak to make a fuss of it.
    via jessibook
  • 27
    Well, it turns out they drove my car over 1100 miles! These parasites took absolute advantage of me while I was at my weakest.
    via jessibook
  • 28
    So today, I sent a text requesting they pay me 30¢ per mile of unauthorized use, which adds up to $255.
    via jessibook
  • 29
    I'll either get some money back for my troubles, or I'll scare them away so badly that I'll never have to see them or deal with them again.
    via jessibook

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Tags

housing disaster friends naïve pet sitter mom Cats animals
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