I am Flabbergasted

[ArtisticRainey]

As some of you may remember, a while back I got some bad news and have to go into hospital for quite a long period of time. I thought it would be best to rehome my pigs, but thankfully one of my boyfriend's friends said he would take my pigs in. He has two pigs of his own, and the tradeoff was that I would take care of his two boars while he went off travelling in Europe for a month. I thought that was a good deal, so I agreed to take the pigs in.

The older pig is about a year and a half and is in great health. Unfortunately, when I told him it would be better if he had a friend, so this guy went out and bought a pig from Pets At Home. I told him not to, but he doesn't agree with my stance on breeding. I started to get a bad, niggling feeling about the whole thing. But I had agreed to pigsit, so I did anyway.

He threw the new pig in right away, which I told him not to. Thankfully the pig is also male. Unfortunately, he's in bad health. I've had the two for a month now and we've been to the vet. The baby, who is five weeks old, has scabs in a lot of places which thankfully aren't ringworm but probably are fungus, conjunctivitis and possibly an ulcer beneath his left eye (needs more investigation), potentially mites, and is underweight. His nails had never been trimmed either. At this stage I knew I wasn't going to trust him with my four.

I called him up a little while ago to ask how his trip was, and when he wanted me to bring the pigs back. You know what he said? 'Nah, you can keep them. I really don't care.'

WHAT?! I am just so disgusted. I mean, I'm glad that I found this out before he took my pigs in, but...I am just so shocked.

I now have six pigs. Thankfully, I'm only going to have to spend the summer in the hospital now (due to budget cuts mostly, not for my benefit). I was on the phone to my mother crying for a solid half-hour there. I'm just so busy and stressed at the moment with finishing off university and taking care of the pigs, I was looking forward to a half-week with slightly less responsibility. My mother didn't want to let the pigs in her house initially because she hates animals, which was why they couldn't stay there in the first place. Now because of what happens she's considering letting the pigs all stay in the spare room there, and my little brother will care for them.

It's all just so...shocking. They're now called Troilus and Pandarus.

[Cosmictadpole]

Wow, that's just ridiculous! What a jerk! I can't say what I really want to call him... Good thing you found out before you let him care for your pigs, but now you're saddled with even more responsibility! It amazes me how people can think of pets as disposable. I hope the situation with your brother looking after them works out!

[Impess82]

Gosh that guy is unbelievable, so rude and utterly heartless. A

Also Pets At Home amaze me. I have to admit I bought my two piggies from them having at the time no real knowledge of the horrors of petshops or breeding and what I had read I naively felt that was exaggerated. Anyway one of them turned out to be pregnant and ended up having three babies, one of which unfortunately died as it was a lethal (not sure if that is the correct term). Luckily I managed to find a very good home for the other two.

Since then I have heard so many stories from other people about buying pregnant or ill guinea pigs from them. I certainly have warned everyone I know from buying any pets from them.

[Jane_G]

All I can say is thank goodness you found out how this guy really is BEFORE you left your piggies with him.

I can't imagine how horrible he would take care of yours if he's willing to just abandon his own pets.

[steve_and_pigs]

I don't find this that shocking. Friends of friends ditching on responsibilities after their interests are served. It is all too trite. Do yourself a favor and trust your instincts.

Chalk it up to a learning experience. Don't get roped. You probably never agreed to watch a store-bought pig in the first place. You could have made that a deal-breaker. Usually sticking to your guns lets folks know that you're not there for them to walk on.

[ArtisticRainey]

It's not even that he's a distant friend. He went to school with the beau for seven years. Many an angry phone call has been had. He has no intention of taking them back, nor is he going to reimburse me the money for the vet bills (which I wouldn't have asked for had he actually taken *his* pets back. Were we dealing with something that wasn't a pair of living creatures I would just dump it on his doorstep.

Part of me doesn't want to trust him even if he did say he'd take them back. I feel incredibly used.

What gets me is the fact that if he was going to ditch his pig, why did he get the second? It's just so ridiculous.

[steve_and_pigs]

Loser. At least you gave him an earful. You could dump something else on his doorstep (joking)

[hydrohoki]

My pigs would be willing to donate organic fertilizer for his doorstep.

[gpigluver14]

Ugh. What a jerk!

My pigs would be willing to donate organic fertilizer for his doorstep.

Same here. I'll donate some to put in his bed! *hehe* That's what he gets for treating animals that way!

[cavyinhawaii]

Originally Posted by ArtisticRainey

It's not even that he's a distant friend. He went to school with the beau for seven years. Many an angry phone call has been had. He has no intention of taking them back, nor is he going to reimburse me the money for the vet bills (which I wouldn't have asked for had he actually taken *his* pets back. Were we dealing with something that wasn't a pair of living creatures I would just dump it on his doorstep.

Part of me doesn't want to trust him even if he did say he'd take them back. I feel incredibly used.

What gets me is the fact that if he was going to ditch his pig, why did he get the second? It's just so ridiculous.

Have you considered taking him to small claims court? He stuck you with vet bills that were not yours. He should pay for them even if he does not want the pigs.

[Ziggy&Herald]

I agree, he is a jerk and it's great that you did find out prior to your stay at the hospital. I know you feel burdened with them being *dumped* on you now, but in hindsight, it will be for the betterment of the pigs. Even if you don't keep them and maybe find them another great home, the pigs are living a better life then they obviously had previously. Hope your health improves. Good Luck.

[Wheek Weak]

I hope he never gets any other pets. He's obviously one of those people who treats sentient beings as just "things" to own and get rid of.

[Weatherlight]

What's your boyfriend's reaction to all this? I guess he can be a bad judge of people

I totally agree you should at least make him pay for some of the expenses. You spent a lot of time and money on those two.

[ArtisticRainey]

I'm not sure about taking him to a small claims court because he didn't ask me to take them to the vet; it was my choice. And I stand by it because the little one was in such bad shape. Perhaps the threat of it will make him hand over some cash.

The boyfriend nearly committed murder-by-screaming. He's absolutely enraged. While the beau doesn't share my concern over animals (loves his dog and cats and wouldn't deny them anything, but doesn't agree with my veganistic lifestyle) he doesn't belive dumping animals is right (who apart from jerks do?). He's considering taking his friend's -- sorry, EX-friend's -- two guinea pigs himself. My brother is only a young teen so six might be a bit too much of a responsibility for him.

The two pigs are so precious. I can't believe he would do that to them. And the guy was really nice too. Or at least I thought he was.

I was considering taking the litter boxes from all the pigs and dumping the contents on his doorstep, but while it would be awesome, it'd further pollute an already polluted city.

If you look at it another way, perhaps Fate was saving these pigs from a future of neglect. I don't know. I'd love to keep them because they're so adorable, but we'll see what the situation is.

Everyone send Jerky McJerk bad vibes. I hope he gets knocked over and stood on my a Great Dane followed by an Irish Wolfhound.

[Weatherlight]

Nice people can pick up harmful attitudes and do cruel things. Many of my friends aren't vegan. Lots are speciesist. Quite a few are pro-breeding. They're still nice people. They just don't act it in some ways Hitler's a great example, because most people love picking on him. He loved his friends, adored his neice (iirc), educated people on the dangers of smoking because he didn't want them to suffer and die unnecessarily from doing that, and according to a friend who watched a documentary about him that came from a secretary who worked for him the last few years until the end: he treated his workers very well, he even forced them to leave when Berlin was being bombed and they didn't want to go; he was very nice to his wife; he was way way too nice to his dog. Now that's disgressing.

I do hope the guy coughs up the money. You could also check the laws in your area, see if they apply to your case, like leaving you with his sick pig to deal with without giving you resources and guidelines for handling vet care, abandoning his animals.

Would dirtying his doorstep make it so much worse for the rest of the city? It would just sux if you got caught.