> If I gave you a car, and the wheels fall off two years later, is that my problem?
So in Western culture there's this notion that a gift creates no further obligations. The recipient should just be happy he got what he got and not expect anything more. As if to say, at least you didn't get nothing, you can still get nothing, you want nothing?
I would say with the puppy if it gets sick and the recipient can't afford it, you should accept paying the bill. Before it was the "giftee's" puppy, it was your puppy for some small amount of time after you got it and before you gave it. Surely when you gave me a puppy you expected me to be able to keep it alive, right? And as for the car, it's not right to give someone a car whose maintenance they can't afford. The puppy and the car are two excellent examples of gifts that cannot be given without forming a relationship between the giver and the receiver.
On the other hand a gift you can give and split and that's it is food or money. Just handing money to a beggar, he might ask for more, and you can walk.
In some African cultures it's more like, if you do me a favor, do me another favor, and then we're true blue and you can rely on me to help you in return, but never in a tit-for-tat manner. It's in the book Debt: The First 5000 Years.