What happened when you had to choose between your partner or your pet? Oh, this is my favorite story from when I worked in a shelter. A guy came in to surrender his cat, with the reason being that his girlfriend didn't like her. He started filling out the paperwork, but partway through, he just stopped and said, You know what, screw this, I'm going to break up with her instead. He picks up the cat and walks out the door,

presumably to leave his girlfriend. I hope he stuck to it and that he and his cat got a happy ending. This was a long time ago, but I'd just started dating this person and I was told they hated my dog. It was a bit of a shock, but I was like, no biggie, just get to know them, and you'll fall in love with him. So the next day we had a doggie date and he tried to kick my dog.

I literally grabbed my dog, turned around and walked away. That was that. She acted like she'd never even considered that I'd choose the cat over her. I don't think that thought had ever entered her mind. Then she went into a big spiel about how I'm a loser. I'm missing out.

There's only one of her, all that crap. Yeah, I knew all of that when I put my foot down over her idiotic jealousy of the cat liking me more than her. The cat is now 16 and still with me,

happy in her senior years. There's been other women since her, ones that treated me a lot better

than she did. It's a total win for both the cat and myself.

Not directly relevant, but once we took in a dog whose human was asked to make this choice.

Beautiful Weimarana.

The guy bought the dog out to our house, on a hill in the woods with acres to roam.

Dogs absolutely love it out here.

And we spent some time walking around, letting the dog get used to roam, dogs absolutely love it out here, and we spent some time

walking around letting the dog get used to the place and meet our other furry residents. We could tell it was really hard on both of them, and then he left. The next day, he kicked the woman out and came back for the dog. Happy ending all round, I'd say. My BFF's little brother got a rabbit this way. One of the BFF's co-workers was told, not asked,

told, by her boyfriend to get rid of her rabbit so he could have a dog. She complied and my BFF gave

the rabbit to her little brother. Year goes by and the co-worker breaks up with the boyfriend.

Little bro laughs in her face and said she had already broken that little bunny's heart once.

She wasn't getting a second chance. Little Bunny lived for seven years with the little bro before age

took care of it. I have an elderly rant, going on four years, which is quite the feat for one of those.

I've raised him since he was a baby with his brother, who passed away two winters ago. When we moved

in with my in-laws over the summer, they didn't want me to bring my rat. I straight up told my partner that I'll live somewhere else for a while. We'd been living together for almost three years at that point, because my rat is my responsibility. He was very old and I was going to see him through to the end. They were a bit upset and accused me of choosing the rat over them, but I explained that he's an animal that relies on us. It worked out. I convinced my in-laws to let me bring him in, and we're all still kicking. He's on his last days, and I'm glad I'm here with him. He'll be buried with his brother when it's time. That's great. Rats really are very sweet when you aren't in a position where you're being plagued by the wild ones.

I'd legitimately consider getting another one if I didn't have cats in my life, which I imagine

is just a recipe for disaster.

It really baffles me how some people don't understand how much a pet can mean to someone.

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