A neighbor who tried to shift the blame for 30 destroyed cat food containers from her dog to a toothless cat is being bashed online.

Redditor u/JinxXedOmens shared their photo of the damage to the popular subreddit r/WellThatSucks and though they may be out a lot of cat food, they earned over 16,500 upvotes and 400 comments.

In the caption, u/JinxXedOmens explains that they asked their neighbor to housesit, but said her dog couldn't come into the house. When they returned, they discovered the pouches riddled with teeth marks, torn open with the contents devoured.

"Your cat did it," u/JinxXedOmens reports their neighbor saying, "I couldn't stop her."

But this excuse didn't resonate with u/JinxXedOmens, because while a cat may be drawn to open up a food pack while their owner is away, the specific cat in question is 14 years old—cats live, on average, between 12 and 18 years—and is toothless.

The OP told Newsweek what happened afterward.

"She sort of bluffed and sputtered about a bit before leaving and I didn't pay her. Took out a crisp note from my wallet and told her I was heading to the shops to get some replacement food and she left. I am in the process of changing my locks," u/JinxXedOmens said.

While dogs may not always like cats, many pet owners have discovered that dogs love cat food. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they need to eat meat. Thus, cat food typically has much more meat-based protein, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC), and tastes and smells more like meat than dog food does. Dogs, on the other hand, while usually meat-lovers, are omnivores and need more nutrients than they can get from meat alone.

Though if a dog occasionally helps themselves to cat food, it's usually okay—but a dog should not be given cat food exclusively, or even regularly, the AKC says. If a dog eats cat food exclusively, the pup is likely to suffer from stomach problems, obesity and pancreatitis. In addition, digesting cat food can cause problems for a dog's kidneys and liver, according to the AKC.

And just as dogs shouldn't eat cat food, cats shouldn't eat dog food. Dog food doesn't have as much taurine and protein as cat food, The Spruce Pets says. Similar to a dog occasionally snacking from the wrong food bowl, if a cat tries dog food every so often, it's probably fine, but it shouldn't become a habit. A cat eating mostly dog food can suffer from stomach problems, skin and fur problems and more, according to The Spruce Pets.

Of course, even if a dog or cat does try food from the other side, it's best not to let them destroy other people's property to do so, and Reddit was on u/JinxXedOmens' side.

"'Your cat did it, I couldn't stop her' ...cat owner here, you can stop cats from destroying their food with this one special trick. You put the food in a cupboard or closet," u/Nobodyville pointed out. "Not only is the sitter lying that the toothless cat could open a package with tooth marks on it, but it's not even a convincing lie."

"Even if a cat with teeth got a hold of that I've never seen one so damaged. I have two cats and even the both of them combined couldn't mangle a package like this," u/TracyF2 wrote.

"Even if a cat with teeth got a hold of that I've never seen one so damaged. I have two cats and even the both of them combined couldn't mangle a package like this," u/texaschair wrote.

Another Redditor suggested a spray bottle, though a few people chimed in to mention that it doesn't work for all cats.

"This is how I discovered that my cat likes water," u/ZorbaTHut wrote.

"I had one that didn't like [the spray bottle]. But enjoyed being chased by it like a game lol. She'd do it until you grabbed the bottle and went after her. It became a way for her to get attention," u/PrintPending added. "'If I do something bad, theyll play with me instead of going to bed!' And come right back and do it again minutes after drying herself. So we upgraded to dropping her in a tub of partially filled water as the new habit breaker and it stopped lol."

And others just shared their crazy cat stories in solidarity.

"If we forget to put the bag of cat food in the closet our cats will try to tear it open. What was more concerning was we left the bag of litter out and one of the cats tore into it on the cat's face that was printed on the bag. There was nothing in the bag he wanted, it was just vengeance for another cat daring to be on a bag in his house," u/dj_narwhal shared.

Update 6/16/22, 7:30 p.m.: This article has been updated to include comment from u/JinxXedOmens.

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