Throwaway.
My nephew, Max is 17 years old. He's my nephew (24 here btw) and I love him dearly but he is a bit of a spoiled brat. He goes through phases like all kids/teens do and seems to have a different interest every month. A few months ago, it was reptiles. He'd stayed with me whilst my sister was in hospital (all fine now) and got really fascinated by my animals, in particular, my red footed tortoise, Daisy.
He begged his mum to get him one and eventually she gave in. Three months later, Max had a baby horsefield. He was so into looking after his tortoise for about a month and then I'm guessing the novelty wore off. From what I saw on the pictures he'd post online, the little guy didn't have a UV light. His heat lamp also broken after a month which Max never bothered to replace. I got a bit worried and spoke to my sister about it. I explained the importance of the lighting in his enclosure and also brought up that the table he was in looked a little small, even for a baby tort. My sister is not a heartless person so she warned Max that if his behaviour didn't improve then she'd be giving the tortoise to someone who would look after him, she did pay for him after all.
Max's behaviour did not improve. He wasn't spot cleaning the enclosure and had to be reminded to feed him. Eventually my sister had enough. She wanted to give him away to someone that could take care of him properly. I had a bit of room in my place and I still had Daisy's old table (I'd been hoping to buy another tortoise myself) and long story short, I took him in, I payed my sister the money for the tortoise but not the enclosure as I already had my own.
Last week, Max texted me and asked for his tortoise back. He told me he'd done more research into tortoise care and that he was ready to take his tortoise back and to his credit he had done his research from what I could tell. But I refused. I do get that he's done his research but I don't trust him. Besides, I've already paid the money for him. Max and a handful of family members are accusing me of stealing the little guy from him and some others have asked me to just give the tortoise back to avoid any drama.
AITA?
eta - Thank you for all the support you guys. My internet went out last night because of the terrible weather so sorry for not replying to a lot of comments. I don't generally take a lot of photos of my animals, or photos in general, so I can't post a picture of the little guy right now. He's burrowed down into the
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