Customer Leaves Bartender $1,000 Tip So She Can Pay Her Dog’s Vet Bill

A very generous customer left a $1000 tip on an $8o bar tab to help a New Jersey bartender pay for her dog’s surgery at a veterinary hospital.

Prompted by a paw-print tattoo on her wrist, Holiday Inn bartender Christina Summitt, 37, was chatting with a middle-aged couple last Saturday night about how she volunteers for a dog rescue organization. She also mentioned that her own dog, a Great Dane-Lab mix, went in for emergency surgery after swallowing a tennis ball.

Summitt said the vet bill was nearly $3,000 which she didn’t have, but she was going to do whatever it took to handle the situation.

The conversation about Tucker the dog must have had a profound impact on the couple. “The couple ordered drinks and dinner at the bar. When it was time to close out their $80 tab, the man filled out the receipt with a tip — for $1,000.” The man told the shocked bartender to put the super-sized gratuity toward Tucker’s medical costs.

According to the hotel manager, the couple who wish to remain anonymous have paid-it-forward numerous times before.

Christina Summitt described the incident on a venting Facebook page called “Why Bartenders and Servers Hate People.”

“Last night a couple come in, I get their drinks, they order dinner, we talk and what not. I told them about my sick doggie Tucker. Yesterday morning he was rushed into surgery and a tennis ball was removed from his small intestines. It turns out to be a $2,700 vet bill!He’s a 3 yr old lab/ Dane mix. He’s like my child, as are all my pets. I didn’t have the money for surgery but what am I gonna do? Let my dog die? No!! I figured I’d sell my car if I had too. Well. The man signs his credit card slip and leaves me $1,000.00 tip!!! Says u use this to help pay for Tucker’s $2,700 tennis ball and we will pray for Tucker. As I cried my eyes out, I told them I could not take this tip. He would not take no for an answer. I could never find the words to thank this amazing kind couple.”

Summitt even returned the favor by paying for the breakfast of another couple staying at the hotel.

Tucker is home and doing fine.