'Dog is okay, but I'm not': 57-year-old wife leaves 59-year-old husband to take care of the family dog for a weekend, but he abandons his responsibilities to go golfing for 36 hours

Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager

Jun 23, 2026 8:15 AM EDT

How would you face your husband after he left your dog with no food, no way to use the bathroom, and no response after your one weekend away all year?

Not everyone is a pet person, and that's okay. Everyone is allowed to have their preferences. But, if you willingly enter into a relationship, let alone a 20-year marriage, you are expected to take equal responsibility for the pets because by now, they're no longer "their pets", they're the family pets. We also entered into our relationship with a dog, and our now-husband was hesitant at first. He, of course, fell in love with our precious princess within days, and now he treats her like his own daughter. For reference, we've been together for six years. Our couple from Reddit's r/AmIOverreacting subreddit have been together for more than 20.

The wife went away for a weekend with her daughter and her husband was expected to stay home and take care of the family dog. He decided to fit in a golf day, promising to be home by 7 PM. Less than ideal, but doable. 9 PM rolls around, still no word from him. Finally, he admits that he's going to stay the night near the golf course and continue golfing the next day. And the dog? Still home alone, without being fed or let out, for more than 12 hours.

We'll let you read how the story ends for yourself, but if this had happened to us, we don't know how we would ever be able to trust our partner again. Marriages are supposed to be built on trust, compromise, and sacrifice. He basically threw all of those things in the trash and put his needs (if you can call them that) first. To do that is to, essentially, throw the marriage in the trash, so we're wondering if he was actually ever "golfing" in the first place. As you'll see below, we're not the only ones who questioned that.

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via Archana Rajendran

A lonely dog home lying on the floor (model representation)
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via No_Mushroom9188
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via No_Mushroom9188
If our partner did this to us, we would be flipping out. Dogs are not meant to home alone for that long without any sort of supervision, no matter how well-trained they are. And even if they can, is that any way to treat something you supposedly “love”? It's the lack of empathy here that really hurts. He didn't think about how the dog would feel, or about how his wife would feel having to rush to fix this problem while on her own vacation. So much for a stress-free weekend!
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via No_Mushroom9188
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via Fabian Marty

Hungry dog waiting for food at home alone
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via No_Mushroom9188
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via babamum
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via Alarmed-Speaker-8330
Not to sound like one of those “gentle parenting” people, but punishing? Really? Should we really be “punishing” our partners for things in our relationship? That doesn't sound healthy at all. It sounds awful.
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via Own_Assistant_2899
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via Mick Haupt

Man playing golf during daytime, as represented by a model
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