Pets are commitments; it’s as simple as that. Some are less labor-intensive, while others, like puppies and dogs, are an enormous amount of work.
But what happens when your significant other brings home a pet, even after you have expressed that you don’t want one living in your home?
This 32-year-old man and his 29-year-old girlfriend have been dating for a year, and they currently live together. They moved into a one-bedroom apartment last month, and he’s paying pretty much all of their bills, as well as their rent.
As soon as he and his girlfriend started living with one another, she brought up wanting to get a puppy. While he enjoys dogs, he thought a puppy was too much for him to sign up for.
“I told her that I’m open to the idea of an older dog in the future, but definitely not right now. Part of the reason is that I work from home, and I do not have the time to let a dog outside every 45 minutes,” he explained.
“I could not have made it clearer how I felt on this issue. When I came home a week ago, there was an 8-week-old yellow lab in my apartment. She works from an office, so I have spent the entire week taking care of the dog.”
“It‘s a great puppy, and I take amazing care of it; however, it is starting to kill me. My partner has [taken] accountability for messing up, promised to take care of all puppy responsibilities, and promised to never do anything like this ever again. She also said she will not rehome the dog.”
A couple of weeks ago, he was convinced he would one day marry his girlfriend. She’s an amazing human being, and she has a slew of wonderful qualities about her.
After she brought home the puppy, that changed his feelings for her. He hates being in his house, and he finds every excuse in the book to leave.
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He’s beginning to resent his girlfriend for not only making an enormous decision he was against, but for dumping this puppy on him to care for.
He doesn’t see how he can quit resenting his girlfriend, and he’s worried this will be a lifelong thing for him since he’s this upset over the puppy already.
“Is it crazy to throw away an otherwise great relationship because of this? To be honest, I’m shocked that I feel this disrespected and hurt. I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable or not,” he concluded.
Dogs live for years, and this puppy is shaping up to be like an eight-year-long commitment. I don’t think he’s being crazy for feeling like he should walk away from his girlfriend after she went against his wishes and made him the puppy’s primary caregiver.
She should have at least paid someone else to watch the puppy during the day or put the puppy in a daycare program so he wouldn’t have to be tasked with caring for the puppy, so that’s extra insensitive and rude of her.
It’s worrisome that his girlfriend put him in a bad position over the puppy, so how would she act if, later on, she wants kids, and he doesn’t?
It’s not fair of his girlfriend to make big decisions without him, and that’s not someone he should try to have a life with. He needs a partner, not a woman who won’t take his feelings or wishes into consideration.
What do you think? Is it reasonable for him to dump his girlfriend over a puppy?
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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
