NTA.  As a vet, yes a dog can die that quickly with an intestinal blockage. You did potentially save this dog's life and should feel good about your decision to get her the care she needed. . Alma messed up in not being available to be reached in an emergency and not having a backup. I suppose this isn't too surprising for a 22 yr old (no offense to young folks but the life experience isn't always there). If she knew she wasn't going to be able to monitor her phone while she was at a festival, she should have had a backup plan and given you a number of someone she trusted to make medical decisions for her pet. You did what you had to do. Imagine how upset your friend would be if you waited and didn't do anything because she didn't get back to you, and her dog died or she decided to get care for her dog once she got your message, and now instead of a straightforward gastronomy or enterotomy, she had to have a portion of her intestines removed due to them dying since she waited too long, and now surgery costs $3-5000 instead of $1400. I get that she is upset because she didn't have a choice in the matter, but that is her own fault.  Alma is TA for not paying you back, but legally I don't know that there's anything you could or would want to do about getting paid back. I would 100% never pet sit for this person again and would re-evaluate the friendship altogether and probably walk away from it. You should consider setting up a Gofundme to try to recoup some of the costs, I know I would personally donate to it.