Let's start by making something very clear, something we believe in wholeheartedly - when you adopt a pet, you take on a years-long commitment. And it's not just a simple commitment, like "not opening the letter until I'm 18", "keeping my best friend's secret", or "maintaining my room clean and tidy". It's a commitment that involves another living, breathing, existing creature. When you adopt a pet, you become a de facto parent.
That's why we can't understand people who adopt (even if out of sheer love for animals), but then decide that treating their pets can't fit their schedules. We've heard all too many times about pets being abandoned outright, but "soft abandonment" is still abandonment.
And what do we mean by that? Take this young student, for example. She dutifully takes care of her sisters' pets - five cats and two dogs. She loves the animals, truly. But she wasn't the one who chose to adopt. Her sisters chose the pets, each their own. But then they moved out, and just… left their pets, all seven of them, in their childhood home, when their student sister and their mom live. And can you really blame the student taking care of the pets she didn't choose for saying she can't take care of them anymore?
source https://cheezburger.com/43785733/sisters-leave-their-cats-and-dogs-at-home-after-moving-out-leaving-their-student-sister-as-a-sole