She Took in Her Dying Aunt’s Dog and Ended Up With an Inheritance. Now Her Brother Is Calling Her a 'Mooch'

She says she was just honoring her aunt’s wishes — now her brother says she stole what was meant for him

NEED TO KNOW

• A woman inherited her aunt’s estate after caring for her aunt’s elderly dog
• Her brother claims the money was originally meant for him, sparking a family rift
• She says she simply honored her aunt’s wishes — now she’s being called a “mooch”

A woman turns to the Reddit community for advice following an emotional fallout with her brother over their late aunt’s inheritance. 

In a post shared to the popular forum, the anonymous 30-year-old writes that her Aunt Bea left everything she had to her, despite originally intending it for someone else.

“This is long but the details are necessary for the full picture,” she begins. While she uses fake names for everyone in the story, there’s one exception: Troy, “the goodest boy,” a senior dog who became family after Aunt Bea lost her only son more than 15 years ago.

“Troy became her son in a 4 legged friend,” she writes, adding, “She definitely liked him more than any of us or anyone in general.” The poster explains that Aunt Bea pampered Troy endlessly, and the bond between them was deep and undeniable.

Everything changed in February of last year when Aunt Bea was hospitalized following complications from a knee replacement. “That just started a snowball of other health issues, eventually taking her in October,” the woman shares.

At the time of Bea’s hospitalization, the woman's brother, John, 35, took Troy in. “John did absolutely everything for him the first 3 months until he moved in with his boyfriend,” she says, but adds that once John moved, pets weren’t allowed — so Troy stayed with her.

“John worked near the house, so would stop by 2-3 times a week to do some of the ridiculous extras Aunt Bea required,” she explains. But aside from those visits, Troy’s daily care was completely up to her.

“He seriously was the best dog ever & old as dirt, so I did my absolute best to follow Aunt Bea’s request for Troy,” she writes. “I really did try to give him the best rest of his life without his mom.”

Almost a year later, Troy passed away. “My kids & I took it harder than I thought we would,” she confesses. She made a memorial in the garden and buried his ashes with Aunt Bea, honoring one of her final wishes.

That, she thought, was the end of it. “Or so I thought,” she continues, revealing that shortly after Troy’s passing, an attorney reached out to her about Aunt Bea’s estate.

“I go through with meeting the attorney about all she had, and she didn’t have much,” the poster explains. Bea had worked various receptionist and secretary jobs and lived in an assisted living home in her later years, which had been “crazy expensive.”

Still, what remained of her estate — however modest — was left entirely to the woman. “I literally had no clue,” she says. “I didn’t know what was happening with her estate, nor did I really care.”

John, however, did care. And he wasn’t happy. “John knew we were in line. Or expected to be in line,” she writes, explaining that during one of his hospital visits, Aunt Bea told him everything would go to whoever cared for Troy, and at the time, that was him.

But after he moved out and left Troy in her care, things shifted. And when he found out she received the inheritance, “he flipped out,” she says. “Calling me a mooch, spreading lies about my care for Troy & other heinous things that just aren’t true.”

The woman says she and John haven’t spoken in over a month. “He is still smearing my name to anyone who will listen,” she writes, adding that she’s using the inheritance to help her family finally get ahead financially.

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“I am taking what Aunt Bea left me to get my little family just a bit ahead for the first time,” she explains. But the tension remains heavy, and she ends her post with the question that started it all: “So I ask, AITAH for claiming her inheritance?”

Commenters were divided. “It really sounds like it should be split 50/50,” one person wrote. “You get it on a technicality so I suppose if you don’t care about your relationship with your brother, keep it all.”

But others saw it differently. “John did that for, what, 3 months?” another commenter asked. “And then you did the rest for another 9? Sounds like you fulfilled your aunt’s wishes and John didn’t.”

For now, the woman remains firm in her decision, holding on to the belief that she honored Aunt Bea — and Troy —  in the best way she could.