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DEAR HARRIETTE: I was pet-sitting my friend’s cat, and it ended with an emergency visit to the vet.
Everything was going fine until I noticed she vomited multiple times around the house, so I called my friend to alert her and took her cat to the vet. It turned out the cat ate the roommate’s hair tie and needed to get a $7,000 surgery, which I agreed to before talking to my friend.
She was understandably extremely upset when I told her what happened. She was worried about her cat and was also overwhelmed by the unexpected $7,000 surgery.
I feel awful this happened while the cat was in my care, even though I had no idea she had eaten the hair tie. I was watching the cat responsibly and acted as soon as I realized something was wrong.
Now I am worried about who is responsible for paying the vet bill. My friend believes that because the cat was under my care when she became sick, I should be responsible for at least some of the cost. I don’t think that is fair, because I did not give the cat the hair tie or know she had swallowed it. I also feel like this was a completely unexpected accident that could have happened even if my friend had been the one watchi...