In reply to: If only this were the first time you've milked posted by Angel
Doesn't make it better than taking from "anonymous internet friends".
In any case, the point is clearly that while you were asking for help to take care of the dog in one hand, you were using the other hand to buy something that is clearly a "want" item.
Others sacrificed to help you out while you didn't in this case.
That was $200-$300 that if you had it for this event, then you didn't need to get it from someone else.
I wonder if he just made up the story to get money from people on this board.
As I said before, we started the surgery fund a few weeks ago and most of the money to date has been donated via friends and family who know the situation personally.
But mea culpa on bringing it to NDN at all. And I now fully understand how it looks to those unaware. I'm sorry. I'd go back and delete the original post about Rocky if I could. For now, I'm resigned to explaining it.
If this was a teaching situation with my son and I, I would say this.
"If it were me, I would be apologizing for to my friends and family in this case. I would say to them, 'I understand that you were helping me when I thought I wasn't in a position to help myself. I sincerely appreciate that and I messed up. I found that when given another opportunity that I was able to come up with an approach to pay for a trip to Miami for my son and I. I could have used that money towards the dog. You sacrificed for me and I find that I didn't myself in this case. I'm going to do what I can to pay you back. I am sorry.'
"Now, you have to learn to make your own decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions. You can do what you want, but please remember that your decisions impact others as well."
Of course, my B9 is incredibly rational and makes cost benefit / opportunity cost decisions all the time, so this probably would not take place.
If NDN people only gave you a small fraction of the $4K for the dog, then you should be able to identify them and make them whole. Promptly.