Thanks for the taking the time to respond. I agree that the situation is fairly complicated...

Her father is a very functional alcoholic with a well-paying job in a field that, interestingly enough, really promotes alcohol consumption. He knows that he was a total absentee father, so he compensates for it by helping her out financially.

I think you and I are in agreement, but I truly believe that, in a "best case scenario", BOTH my girlfriend's boss and the boss's wife would have taken her in a daughter-type capacity. My girlfriend's relationship with just her male boss, and possibly while alienating her boss's wife, makes in seem inappropriate to me.

Regarding the GoFundMe account, I actually tried to gently discourage her from setting one up, if only because I think that money makes EVERYTHING complicated, because I find it a bit tacky in general, and because she's not actually strapped for cash (well, she is, but she has the means to pay for the hospitalization through her family). She told me that she was more concerned with recruiting support for our dog, so I didn't press the issue, but that makes it EVEN stranger to me that she shared her boss's offer to match other peoples' contributions (given that she said the financial component of setting up the account was very secondary). I suppose it's feasible that she doesn't want to "owe" her parents - although she regularly asks her father to pay for her rent, medical bills, any emergency costs, etc. - but at the end of the day, I don't know that asking strangers to "lend" you money is any different. That being said, her relationship with her parents certainly is complicated as a result of their substance-abuse history, and I don't know that I can fully understand that dynamic.

To her credit, she didn't identify her boss by name when she posted an update - she simply said that a very generous fan of the dog was willing to match all contributions up to $500. But it still makes me uncomfortable.