24-year-old couple move out of household with close friends who don't pay or clean, sneakily takes the roommate's neglected cat with them: '[We wrapped] him in a blanket so they won't know.'

Author image for Celeste Mello
Celeste Mello • Writer and Editor
Apr 9, 2026 10:30 AM EDT

Living with friends can be fun… Until the split of rent, chores, and responsibilities becomes uneven.

Life is easy when everyone pays what they are supposed to and helps with household chores as expected. But that's an ideal world. In the real world, people can be very irresponsible. The conflict starts when one roommate avoids chores, skips rent once, then twice, then refuses to get a job, won't help with cleaning, and eventually, you end up doing everything while also paying their rent for seven months. Add a beloved pet into the mix, and the situation can become truly unbearable. It's easy to feel trapped when you care about your friends, but your life turns chaotic because you're stressed at home, constantly covering for others, and cleaning up after them. This can push even the most patient person to their limit. No one can live like this, and most importantly, no one deserves to. 

Another neglected chore, another unpaid rent check, another time your friend doesn't even clean the cat's litter box. After months of this, the weight of it all becomes too much to handle, and it's impossible not to grow resentful toward your friends. You might still care about them, but living like this? Not an option. It's your finances and mental health we're talking about here. Over time, small (and not so small) daily frustrations pile up until they explode into big decisions about friendship involving boundaries, money, and trust. How long would you put up with friends who can't even do the dishes?

This is exactly what happened to a couple who moved in with friends who wouldn't meet their obligations. After months of covering for their careless behavior, the couple began quietly planning their escape. And yes, it got so intense that they had to take their beloved cat with them in secret. 

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  • A woman holding her beloved cat.
    via Unsplash+ (Helena Lopes)

    A woman holding her beloved cat.

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

  • When we first moved in, everything seemed fine. They helped clean and even asked for a cat, so my boyfriend got one for them.
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  • They took care of it at first, but that didn't last. They stopped cleaning the litter box and didn't bathe the cat even though it had ringworm.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • The room got so bad that it became a biohazard. The cat eventually started to all over the house.
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  • We couldn't fully take care of it because we both had jobs, even though I was the one who paid for its food and litter.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • I got tired of it and moved the cat into our room. We got new supplies and took good care of it, and it got a lot better.
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  • It got healthier and more affectionate; the cat even started to play around a lot. We adopted another cat, and they were both doing well with us.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • But when we left for a week and asked our friends to take care of them, we came back to a mess.
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  • The room was a mess and the litter box hadn't been cleaned at all. I had to clean and disinfect everything again because the smell was so bad i even had to puke while cleaning.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • They also weren't paying their fair share. I had to sell a lot of my gadgets just to get by, and my boyfriend had to give up a lot to help them.
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  • Dirty dishes in the sink left behind by irresponsible roommates.
    via Unsplash+ (Anna Syla)

    Dirty dishes in the sink left behind by irresponsible roommates.

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

  • One of them wouldn't take a job unless it was work-from-home or up to his standards, saying that other jobs were "toxic." After six months, he still hadn't paid anything.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • He didn't pay rent, didn't clean, and even left food out for weeks, which made the house smell bad.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • My boyfriend and I finally stopped cleaning the shared spaces and just stayed in our room.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • The other friend would pay late and contributed very little. She would ask her parents for money, supposedly for tuition, but spend it on partying instead of rent or groceries.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • She also didn't clean and even posted about our pets on social media (my bf and i had reptile pets), complaining about how hard it was to take care of them.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • At that point, we couldn't afford to support two other people anymore, especially after seven months of this situation.
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  • Honestly, if they had just been responsible, cleaner, and made an effort to work- even a simple job- it could have all worked out.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • We decided not to continue the contract and go our separate ways. They still owe us a lot of money, but we're done trying to fix things after repeatedly communicating with them.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • Now me and my bf are moving in together and taking a lot of stuff with us, stuff we paid for.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • We do not plan on telling them when we're going to move out, but they know we're already looking.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • Cat sleeping peacefully on a couple's bed.
    via Unsplash+ (

    Cat sleeping peacefully on a couple's bed.

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

  • As for the cat, the other friend claims to love the cat so much, and we can't take it unless they say it's ours, we do not want another drama.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • It just sks that I had to leave the cat behind because they don't want to give him to me.
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  • I just hope they take good care of him
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  • EDIT: we will be taking the cat as the cat was deeply drawn to us and it would be h I to leave him behind knowing these people are not capable of giving him his basic needs. we will be moving into our own apartment tomorrow and as someone said here to wrap him in a blanket so that they wont know. i too wonder how long it would take them to realize that we took him.
    via xiaolongbao101
  • i also made this post and forgot to include that i was asking reddit because i also felt bad that we were friends for quite some time and there weren't really any problems that were this big when we first moved in. its more of i have this guilt of leaving them behind even tho i sort of don't like what they did and how irresponsible they are. we are all adults (22-24) and it feels like this is so childish since it could've been an easy fix on their end.
    via xiaolongbao101

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cat pets adulting is hard adulting household friends moving in together life lessons adulthood boundaries roommates moving out
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