Cat sitter is told her compensation is the electricity she used while staying in the host’s empty apartment for 2 weeks, while covering all her own groceries and needs

• AITAH for being annoyed my mom's acquaintance called "energy usage" a fair trade for two weeks of free cat-sitting?

  

  Cat sitter gently petting a cat

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  Cat-sitter spending quality time with a cat

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  Cat sitter gently scratches cat's chin

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• This sitter walked into a flat with a feline roommate who required leg massages, magnesium supplements, and regular bakside cleanup. The host called that arrangement a fair trade for energy usage, as if the cat’s medical needs were a spa amenity included in the complimentary stay.

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• Cats with mobility issues do not care about someone’s generosity narrative. They care about clean litter, food that does not come out of the sitter’s paycheck, and a human who will wipe their backside without treating it like a moral failing. This particular cat needed daily hands-on care, not a philosophical debate about whether free housing counts as compensation.

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• The host framed the whole situation like a wellness retreat. “You get to live on your own!” when the cat needed someone to massage its hind legs and clean up messes that happen when a pet cannot use a litter box properly. That’s a live-in nursing job with a furrier uniform. Not a taste of independence. 

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• The sitter just needs to let her find another option. Plenty of sitters will trade actual care for actual groceries or cash. And her cat obviously deserves someone who treats its needs like actual work instead of a barter system where the animal’s medical care funds the host’s spending plan.

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