i love my friend but hate seeing her

i’ve had this friend for about 6 years now. i met her through one of my guy friends when i was about 17. she was his girlfriend. we became close really fast. they were my only friends for a long time. they always lived in lower income and did what they “had to do” to get by. The girl i will call Sally and the guy i will call Jake. Sally and Jake went on to get their own place after jake’s mom got taken to jail. Though i was originally jake’s friend, me and sally became really good girlfriends, she’s sweet and kind and silly and i love her. she is also a little crazy but for the situations she’s been through it makes sense why. As i started visiting their new place it became apparent really fast we were living very different lives of what we thought was acceptable. They had an insane amount of animals. sally thought she was doing good because she has love for animals, but simply was not capable of caring for all the animals she had. she would get cats but not get them fixed so they started having kittens, multiple litters at once, who became infested with fleas. i had to help her get it under control and ended up surrendering them to a shelter for her. she would have bunnies and dogs, which she would keep locked away because she didn’t want them to hurt the cats and the dog also got pregnant and the male dog would be aggressive. the house smelt terrible and at one point when i came over she had all the cats in one bathroom and when i went into it, it felt like a horror scene. there was cat feces all over and just like 5 cats in a small small bathroom infested with fleas. Jake and sally as well were INSANELY toxic. he would cheat on her constantly, he did not work, he contributed nothing, basically lived there rent free and treated her like garbage. sally worked every single day and paid all the bills. i always encouraged her to dump him and to try and get the animals under control. i decided i just couldn’t handle seeing her anymore because she honestly didn’t want help. i really tried but she would not leave him and was choosing destruction and it became too much for me to witness as well. a year went by and she had finally left him and gotten a new guy. i decided today i would go and see her. she somehow gained custody of her sisters daughter and she seems so much happier right now. so i went to visit today and though it was a bit better of a cleanliness situation, it was still not great. there were dogs still locked in cages who had worms. it smelt like feces. she had a bird she kept in her closet, a bird i believe you’re supposed to have two with. and worst of all, she had a cat that was maybe a year old at most that had kittens living in the 14 year olds room that she had gained custody of. the child’s room smelt terrible. there is no AC and there were flys and bats all over the house.
I met the child and she was such a sweet girl. i feel so terrible for the situation they have her in, and though it was better than previously, im just sad that i feel like i can’t really associate with someone like that. she’s not a bad person. i know that sounds crazy to say, but sally is a little bit developmentally slow. she thinks she is doing good, and helping all these animals, which is why i always try to help her and lead her in correct directions with caring for them. but it is just getting over whelming. i feel like when i do come to see her it just results in me feeling dirty and depressed and guilty for being around that situation even.

Posted Jul 26, 2026, 11:49 PM UTC

10
Loading comments…