Am I Liable for a Bill I Never Knew About?

A dog named like a family member, a brother who was supposed to be handling the “dog stuff,” and a girlfriend who kept showing up with new bills and new paperwork. That’s how this Reddit post starts, and it turns into a messy blame spiral the moment the family thinks the worst is over.

OP moved in with her husband four years ago, and her brother agreed to take her dog. For months, OP paid vet visits directly, even offering to cover some utilities. But once her brother started dating his girlfriend, the vet updates started coming through her, along with claims about heartworms and requests for money. Then the dog got very sick, surgery happened, OP paid half the $1,200 and handled the funeral and cremation details too.

So when January rolls around and OP gets hit with a $600 “unpaid” collections bill, the real shock is not the amount, it’s that the paperwork somehow changed into the girlfriend’s name while OP was left in the dark.

Original Post

I 31f moved in with my now husband 4yrs ago. My bro 26m agreed to take my dog & I was more than happy to pay anything dog related & even some of his utilities if needed.

2 1/2yrs ago he started dating his now gf. Since any vet appt needed she would call me & say my dog has heartworms or something like that (she's NEVER had heartworms) & also say she needed X amount of $ to pay.

I've always paid the vet directly beforehand. & I've asked a few times for this to stay between my bro & I & he's never enforced my wishes.

All I could do was ask & let it be. Back in May 2022, my dog fell ill.

She calls again saying she knows it's heartworms (probably 3rd time claiming this in under a yr) I call the vet scheduled the appt. She takes the dog, dog ends up needing surgery.

I pay half the 1200 but 10mins later vet calls and says it's cancer eating away at her, there's no quality of life left. She was suffering.

I handled all payments & funeral arrangements even paid for my bro to get a separate urn & prints done. We both loved this dog equally.

Problems kept occurring thru the process of cremation/ delivery with gf. She would text me asking how things were going/updates.

I would then get in touch & turned out they've already spoke with her, EVERY TIME I CHECKED IN. Plus other things regarding this but I bit my tongue other than expressing my feelings to our other siblings/patents/husband.

Jump to this January. She's texting me that's I left a $600 bill unpaid & need to pay.

This is odd bcuz I was never contacted, & I paid everything upfront & it totaled 1400 between vet &funeral. I find out that the day my dog goes in she changes all paperwork into HER name as primary and leaves my bro as financially responsible, there ended up being a 185 balance that went into collections, that with interest now is 600.

I contact my bro l, talk out past frustrations about her inserting herself & she goes nuts overhearing the call. Saying she did no such thing, im calling her a liar.

All types of stuff. Winds up hanging up in my face while I'm trying to settle things.

I text my bro saying I won't pay the balance bcuz she wanted to be involved so congrats. She's involved.

We havent spoken since bcuz i want an apology. AITA?

Edit 1: I'm not sure I'm even doing this right bcuz it's my 1st ever post. Edit 2: I've replied to many comments below and explained further/in depth the situation.

Due to character limits I don't think they'll fit here. Could be wrong.

Bare with me while I learn reddit

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Also, this feels like the coworker who refused extra tasks while her boss pressured her during her coworker’s maternity leave.

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The story gets ugly after OP pays upfront for the surgery and cremation, while the girlfriend keeps texting updates even after OP checked in directly.

That’s when OP finds out the day the dog went in, the girlfriend changed the paperwork to her name as primary and left OP’s brother holding the financial bag.

Next comes the $600 collections balance with interest, even though OP says the total vet and funeral costs were already covered and she was never contacted about any missing payment.

To make it worse, when OP confronts her brother about the girlfriend inserting herself into everything, the conversation blows up fast, and it sounds like nobody is backing OP’s version of events.

What do you think about this situation? Let us know in the comments.

Nobody in this family is arguing about the dog anymore, they’re arguing about who got stuck with the bill.

Want workplace drama too, see why one employee demanded a raise in front of everyone.