My neighbour has a cat called Stevie. Stevie hangs out with us a lot and we look after him when my neighbour is away.

Yesterday we found Stevie very unwell in our garden. We took him to the neighbour and she immediately rushed him to the vet.

She mentioned the vet was 200 dollars which was a big unexpected expense for her. Her son’s birthday is on Monday and she won’t be able to do anything for his birthday now.

My wife and I are fortunate enough for 200 dollars to not be a lot of money for us and we want to help, but I’m unsure how.

One option would be that we leave her a little card with 100 dollars and write that we wanted to help because we care about Stevie too.

Another idea is we ask her to do some gardening for us (that’s her job, and we’re too busy to do it ourselves right now).

I don’t want her to feel patronised or awkward about any of this… Happy to take insights.

  • thechadwick@lemmy.world
    5·
    11 months ago

    Another post mentioned just giving cash anonymously and I think that’s easily the best option. You would almost certainly have access to their mailbox if it’s a suburban stand alone type? If not, an unmarked envelope under the door, with cash, would preserve plausible distance from making the neighbor feel like they have to decline out of etiquette.

    Don’t think about it more, they clearly need the help if they mentioned it, and if you can help without feeling the impact just do so without strings or direct attribution. They’ll suspect it, and can if they approach you in genuine thanks if they want, then you’re able to be gracious about accepting, or simply act surprised and happy that such a nice thing happened if not.

    I’ve had people clearly embarrassed at the grocery checkout take a 50$ bill I claimed fell out of their pocket before several times. Preserves their dignity even if it’s just a pretext for helping. Puts the ball in their court at least. “Hey man, I don’t know what to say but it’s not mine. Pay it forward for someone who needs help if it’s not yours” is the worst that’s ever gone for me before. Nobody likes being a charity case.