What would you do in this situation? (Kinda long) [View all]
I moved into an apartment in the suburbs a little under two years ago. Shortly after moving in I took care of a friends cat for a month. I kept the cat at my apartment. The woman across the hall who is between 65 and 70 (let's just call her Mary) noticed the cat while she and I were talking one day. I told her that I was cat-sitting for a friend and Mary has now asked me to cat-sit for her on three occasions, once for a few days, once for a couple weeks and last December for a month. She has never offered to pay and I have never asked for payment because she is elderly and she lives right across the hall, so I don't have to travel to get to her cats.
A couple weeks ago Mary knocks on my door to tell me that she was going to California to visit her daughter for THREE MONTHS. The entire summer. She wasn't asking me to cat-sit though. She told me that a woman in the apt. building next to us whom she has known for years (let's call her Jane) was going to watch the cats for the summer. I figured she didn't want to prevail upon me AGAIN so she asked someone else to watch her cats this time. Great. She asked me if she could give Jane my phone number in case something came up and Jane couldn't feed the cats that day. I said fine. I figured that if I was around I wouldn't mind popping in a few times over the course of the summer if need be. Well, off she goes to California and I find out from Jane that Mary told her that I was taking care of the cats for the summer and that Jane was the back-up person if I wasn't available. I told Jane that that was NOT the case and that Mary didn't even give me a key. As it turns out, she gave two keys to Jane and Jane left one under the mat outside Mary's door. Mary gave me no contact or vet info and didn't even say goodbye to me on the day she left. I do still happen to have her cell phone number which she gave me the very first time I cat-sit for her over a year ago but she never even checked to make sure I still have it.
Bottom line is I am NOT taking care of this woman's cat ALL summer. Also, I'm not sure that Jane is being completely honest with me. I kinda get the feeling that maybe she did in fact agree to take care of the cats and then changed her mind once she saw the state of Mary's apartment. Mary apparently instructed Jane to roll up and dispose of two large, old, scratched up, cat hair-covered rugs in her apartment. I ended up helping Jane with these rugs. In fact, I did most of the work while Jane sat there covering her nose with a bandana and complaining about the smell of the apt. which is in fact quite dirty and considerably worse than it was when I cat-sit for her six months ago: cat hair and litter everywhere, sinks piled with dirty dishes, clothes all over the bedroom floor. The cats are in the apartment by themselves for most of the day. I don't want them in my apartment because they are quite messy cats and I don't know their habits. I don't know why Jane won't take them into her apartment even though she been friends with Mary for years. Jane doesn't work, which is another reason I assume Mary asked her to watch the cats. Jane claims to have been in touch with Mary and that Mary is making calls to try to make other arrangements. So far nothing. Like a fool I've let this go on for two weeks so far thinking that any day now Jane will tell me that she heard from Mary and that Mary has worked something out with some friend or family member. One of these two women (maybe both) is full of it. I'm about to call Mary myself to find out what the deal really is. If she did in fact tell Jane that I was taking care of the cats while telling me that Jane was taking care of the cats then she's an asshole and I'm thinking of calling the landlord to tell him that the cats have basically been abandoned for three months and that he should call the SPCA. Jane is afraid that if the landlord sees the state of the apartment he'll evict Mary. This is what she expressed to me when I helped her with the rugs. I'm not sure what to do and I'm also wondering if Mary is not all there mentally. She's always seemed fine and lucid when I've talked to her but the state of her apartment says otherwise and if she did in fact lie to both me and Jane then she is either very dishonest or very ill. What would you do?
On edit: I am going to be away from my computer for a bit after posting this, so it might be an hour or so before I respond to any replies.
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