The honeymoon phase is meant to include a lot of bubbly, rose-colored glasses, and maybe a few too many gifted kitchen appliances you’ll never end up using.
But what would you do if your spouse waited until the “I do’s” were done to issue an ultimatum about your furry soulmate? Would you be looking for a new home for your dog or a divorce lawyer for your spouse?
This 30-year-old man got married to his 27-year-old wife not too long ago, and he came into the marriage with his 5-year-old dog, who has been in his life since he was only a puppy.
His wife has a dog of her own, and they never lived together under one roof with their pups prior to tying the knot. However, his wife did spend a lot of time sleeping over at his place in the week leading up to their wedding.
Now that the ink is dry on their marriage license, his wife has suddenly sprung it on him that his dog’s dander is irritating her asthma, and he has to get rid of his pet.
While he doesn’t think his wife is lying to him and he’s worried about her health, the issue he has is that his wife never voiced her concerns to him once before their wedding day.
He’s since done everything in his power to help his wife’s asthma, such as no longer allowing his dog to sleep in their bed or walk into their bedroom, giving his dog fish oil and daily brushing, and a biweekly bath.
Additionally, he has an air purifier set up in their bedroom with a HEPA filter, specifically to combat pet dander. He and his wife vacuum the house until it’s spotless, and they constantly wash their bedsheets to eradicate the dander and dog hair.
“It has been less than a week, and she hasn’t even given it a chance to start working. When she would stay over at my house before we married, my dog would sleep in our bed and right next to her, and she didn’t voice her concern once then, but now she’s completely flipped the script and isn’t giving me any time or patience to combat the issue without getting rid of my dog,” he explained.
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“I think that we should exhaust all options before going to the extreme of getting rid of him, but she is saying if I don’t, she’ll go back and live with someone else already.”
“If she had told me this sooner, then we would’ve been able to see what works and what doesn’t, but now I’m being rushed into this and feel like I’m being threatened. I told her to see an allergist, too, to see if it could also be something else, which she agreed to, but hasn’t pursued.”
He’s left wondering if it makes him a jerk to not want to rehome his dog at his wife’s insistence that this is the only path forward.
If my husband woke up one day and told me out of the blue he wanted me to get rid of my dogs, I would be rehoming him instead.
To me, it’s likely that his wife hates his dog and is using her asthma as an excuse to force him to comply with her wishes. It makes zero sense that she was sleeping in the same bed as his dog until they officially became a married couple without complaining.
I don’t believe his wife, and if it comes down to it, he should pick his loyal, four-legged best friend over her in a heartbeat.
What do you think?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
