Well-Meaning Guest Stepped On A Golden Retriever’s Paw, So A Lighthearted Game Night Turned Into A Swirl Of Accusations And A Ruffled Relationship

Everyone knows that pet ownership can be a handful, but some owners are just as high strung as their furry friends.

A well-intentioned house guest accidentally steps on a dog’s paw, and the owner freaks out, demanding she take the dog to the emergency vet.

But when she refuses, serious drama ensues.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for refusing to take my friend’s dog to the emergency vet after I accidentally hurt him?

Last weekend, I was at my friend Seraphina’s place for a small game night with a few others.

She has this huge, hyper golden retriever named Ronan, who is basically the friendliest dog ever but also a bit of a handful.

He’s the type of dog that’s always bouncing around and getting in everyone’s face because he’s so excited to see you.

It didn’t take long for the inevitable to happen.

At one point, I was walking through the living room with a glass of wine when Ronan, as usual, ran up to me full-speed.

I wasn’t really paying attention, and when he jumped up on me, I kind of panicked and tried to move out of the way.

But in the process, I stepped on his paw pretty hard.

The dog’s owner was less than understanding.

He yelped, and I immediately felt horrible. Ronan limped off for a bit, and Seraphina freaked out, understandably.

I apologized right away, but Seraphina was in full panic mode.

It didn’t seem to matter that the dog had already made almost a full recovery.

Ronan was limping for a few minutes, but then he seemed to shake it off and started walking around more normally, even wagging his tail.

Still, Seraphina insisted we should take him to the emergency vet right then and there because she was worried I’d really hurt him, like maybe fractured his paw or something.

Here’s where things got awkward.

The house guest insisted there was nothing to be so worked up about.

I told her I thought Ronan was fine. He wasn’t crying or limping anymore, and it didn’t seem serious enough to rush him to the vet in the middle of the night.

I suggested we wait until morning, and if Ronan seemed worse, I’d totally cover the cost of a vet visit.

But the owner was beyond reasoning with at this point.

Seraphina wasn’t having it, though—she was really upset, saying I didn’t care about what I did to her dog and that I should take responsibility right away by taking him to the emergency vet.

I get that it’s her dog, and I did feel bad, but at the same time, Ronan seemed okay to me, and I didn’t think it made sense to rush to an emergency vet over what seemed like a minor injury.

I didn’t want to spend a ton of money (or time) at a vet for something I didn’t think was serious. So I stood my ground and said we should wait and see.

The incident seemed to wound not only the dog’s paw, but their entire friendship.

Seraphina got really upset and said I was being selfish. I ended up leaving shortly after, and now she’s barely speaking to me.

So, was I being a jerk for not taking Ronan to the vet right away?

I thought I was being reasonable, but now I’m second-guessing everything.

Talk about a canine calamity.

What did redditors have to say?

This commenter points out that, with better training, this debacle could have been avoided entirely.

She only did what was reasonable in this scenario. A vet trip would have been an unnecessary waste of money.

Responsible pet owners don’t freak out over every little thing.

Contrary to her friend’s belief, this was far from the end of the world.

Any reasonable person could see that she didn’t mean any harm to an innocent golden retriever.

The pup may have bounced back quick, but their friendship may not.

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