'He told me I chose our cat over moving in together': Manipulative husband gets his wife a cat, then forces her to choose between keeping the cat and moving in with him, leading her to want to divorce

11 hours ago 3

Cats are always the best indicator of red flags in your partner. 

We truly think that cats are like truth detectors. They may not always be able to tell you who is a good partner for you and who is not, but they will give you the signs. The way that your partner treats your cats means so much. If your partner is jealous of your cat and doesn't know how to deal with you showing your cat affection, that's a problem. If your partner thinks that you kissing your cat is disgusting and refuses to kiss you if you do, that's another problem. And if your partner, one day, gives you an ultimatum: it's either them or the cat, then we think that the choice should be a clear one. 

Of course, it's never easy to make that choice. It's never easy to put your relationship off to the side because of the signs that your partner gives you. It's why we think that you should have the cat conversation early. The sooner you get to an agreement when it comes to your pets, the smaller the chance that you will end up in the situation that this woman and her husband ended up in. 

  • 01

    "My M19 thinks I’m F20 thinks I’m choosing our cat over living together what to do?"

    Picture of a light calico cat sitting outside.

    Picture of a light calico cat sitting outside. 

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02

    So my husband is in the Air Force. We've talked about moving in with each other loads and loads of times and had to get married online. I pushed towards us getting married online (after he pushed first and I also pushed towards it) because when something did not go his way, he'd quit immediately and pull away from me.

  • 03

    When we met in person, he had brought me a cat and she's literally grown so attached to me and she's absolutely beautiful. So he updated his deers (so that I'm on the paper) and his pay is coming up we talked more about it and I was excited.

  • 04

    His sergeant said that if my husband wanted to, I could live in his dorms until he got the pay, and put in a two weeks notice to actually go house hunting together but the only problem was our cat and that honestly nobody but him is supposed to be in his dorms.

  • 05

    He said "how about we just give up our cat and get a new one" that did not sit right with me, I told him we got cosmic and that's practically our baby and we couldn't do that.

  • 06

    He said "why are you doing this?" And I was genuinely confused so I asked "what?" And then said "Nvm dont worry about I'll call u later" and hangs up. He does this a lot so I know he's upset.

  • 07

    I asked him what was wrong and said maybe we can move in another time and that he did try to compromise so we can move in together by giving up the cat. Which there's plenty of different options to do.

  • 08

    He said "Yeah but i cant want it more than you do im giving you choices to still have a cat in the end" and I've wanted us moving in more than anything... he basically said I wasn't acting like it and it hurt my feelings all because I tried to keep our cat from getting put up for adoption again.

  • 09

    He told me I chose our cat over moving in together and I was just trying to say that there's different options from just giving her up and getting another cat that would not solve much he was like "since we're gonn be long distance for a while we can stop sharing locations" and he stop sharing his and it hurt me badly because there was no need to do that.

  • 10

    Idk what to do I feel so horrible I told him he was being mean and he wasn't caring about my feelings because beforehand I did tell him to stop taking his location down and he said he wouldn't do it again and then he did it again. He also calls our cat "my baby" instead of "our baby" now because she isn't "his" anymore.

  • So many red flags. All over this story. We don't even know where to start. It honestly sounds like this man doesn't even like this woman, let alone love her. And that hurts. Reading that - all the things that she is putting up with - it is so painful. Especially when she is someone so young, who was clearly so hopeful about this marriage. She deserves better. And the cat that she has and loves certainly deserves better as well. We hope that there are people around her who can help, who can guide her, because although the advice here on this thread is good, we don't know if it is quite enough for her to take the steps that she needs to take to change her situation. We wish her luck. And we hope she never lets go of this cat. He is better than her man. 

  • 11

    Picture of a cat next to someone sitting.

    Picture of a cat next to someone sitting. 

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 12

    ItsPleaseAndThank You Girl. My ex-husband is military. They definitely would not allow you to live in the dorms. Even if they're meaning live somewhere on base, the way he wants you to just get rid of the cat is a huge flag. It seems like he would rather make you feel guilty or bad, instead of actually put in the work to figure stuff out. You are NOT being unreasonable. This is manipulative behavior. Removing his location to "punish" you is really unkind and mean.

  • 13

    Mature people don't "punish" their loved ones- they figure out a common ground that works for everybody (including pets they chose to adopt.) If he cannot see this, you will NOT convince him otherwise.

  • 14

    Please don't make the mistake I did and have children with them. Also please don't make the mistake of thinking, "Ohhh they're this way because of ________. They can get better if they go to counseling or HE has to realize that for himself and nobody should ever try to be the one to "change him."

  • 15

    NothingPrimary4409 OP Thank you so much....i really needed to hear this. It does feel like it's manipulative. I told him it was mean and he said "how is that mean?" But I know that if roles were reversed he would feel exactly like me. He said "we're long distance so we don't need to share locations" | told him long distance couples share location all the time and all he could say was "Are we those long distance relationships?"

  • We are glad to see her taking this advice to heart. And we hope that she legitimately implements it. The more time she spends with him, the more difficult it is going to be to leave, for many reasons. The sooner the better. We wish her so, so much luck, and hope that she will have all the strength that she needs to do what needs to be done. 

  • 16

    Picture of a cute cat looking off to the side.

    Picture of a cute cat looking off to the side. 

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 17

    dunkinmediumiced yo he hates you. take YOUR cat (living breathing creature who loves and depends on you) and go be happy together without that man child holy macaroni.

  • 18

    NothingPrimary4409 OP Yeah I feel like I might do it tomorrow. There's some other conversations he has had with me like "these two options and nothing else" and I've had to choose between just those two. I should've saw the red flags but we've known each other since he was 16 and I was 17

  • 19

    Picture of a cute cat sleeping.

    Picture of a cute cat sleeping. 

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 20

    CantaloupeShort7311 Girl, you are a different person from then, and you will be a dofferent person in another 5 years. This is why marrying young is stupid. You dont even know who YOU are yet as an individual.

  • 21

    NothingPrimary4409 OP You're definitely right...I really don't I genuinely do feel like I need to just get a divorce and focus on myself from now on

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