Hello all,
I've never posted here but Google is failing me and I'm hoping someone can help.
Every night, I sit on my raised front porch with my 5 year old pitbull, as has been our routine for 4 years. I have a swinging gate with a heavy latch that blocks the stairs leading down to the yard, and the railings all the way around the porch are 4 feet high with 2x2 slats every 7 1/2 inches. The porch itself is 5 feet off the ground. In 4 years, there has never been a single incident.
A week ago, this changed.
We were sitting outside as normal when all of a sudden, my dog launched himself THROUGH the railing, knocking out one of the slats, jumped to the yard and went for a cat. The whole thing lasted maybe 20 seconds at most, from launch to me reaching the wrestling happening at the bottom of the hill in my front yard. One yell of my dog's name and he backed off and came right to me.
The cat took off, but my roommate went after it, picked it up and took it home. The owners did not answer their door, so she bundled it up onto their porch sofa and left. There was cat hair all over my roommate, but no blood, so we thought the cat had only minor injuries, if any.
The next day, the neighbor came over yelling at us about keeping control of our dog, but backed off as soon as we told him our dog was contained and supervised until the cat wandered onto my property.
Because I am not heartless, I offered to help pay the initial er vet bill. I feel awful that my dog hurt their cat. However, the following day, the wife showed up and told us the cat's leg is broken in 2 places and will need a surgery that'll cost 3 grand, and they seem to expect us to pay that, too.
Today, Health & Rabies showed up and said the woman called them because she "wanted an official report for her records".
It should be noted, I live in an area where free roaming pets are not allowed.
My question is, do these people actually have grounds to come after me for a non life saving vet bill when their cat wandered onto my property unattended, and my dog was just doing what he's supposed to do and protecting his house and people?
I want to help them with the initial bill, because I do feel awful, but I feel like they are trying to get far more out of me than I'm obligated to pay. I am disabled and on a fixed income; I can't afford to drop 3 grand on ANYTHING, much less this.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/cn0w77/looking_for_advicefacts/
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