To feel uncomfortable with this man?

I get it. I wouldn’t exchange numbers under those circumstances though. For me, that’s too familiar and I think that’s where the misunderstanding came from. Also why meet an acquaintance for a coffee, rather than simply in the park at an approximate time for the dog walk. I’m long in the tooth though, so maybe what I’d do now and what I might have done in my 20s are different. I’m not certain.

Just wanted to say I think you tried to do a kind thing and this man has completely overstepped. For people saying that he's just lonely it's strange that these men never carry on the same way with other men. You feel uncomfortable and that's all that matters. His feelings are not your responsibility. I personally wouldn't even slow fade now as that's still engaging with him and giving him some level of interest. I'd seriously just stick to good morning and keep on walking. Also block his number.

I had a similar situation with a female neighbor where I started helping with her dog. She became an absolute pest texting and phoning constantly and I couldn't leave my house without her running out to talk to me. Long story short I don't even look at her now. Yes that may seem hard or cruel but I get to come home from work and go straight into my house without having to stand and listen to absolute shite for 20 minutes first.

Hope you work it out😊

If you didn’t want to become a full on friend (and I understand why you wouldn’t), why on earth did you give him your phone number? As someone else’s advised, start taking your husband with you on these walks and gradually cool with him. You need to be gentle, as you are at least partly responsible for his misunderstanding and given his mental health problems and caring responsibilities. Be kind, but distance yourself a little.

Apologies. No victim blaming I promise - don't mean it to come across that way.

Couldn't happen if you were more careful with your phone number!

I'm afraid to say but this is exactly why I wont befriend random men. I have done the same as you in the past OP and it has always turned out horribly. I always used to feel sorry for them and despite me having a husband/kids and mentioning them all the time and never saying anything that could be remotely misinterpreted, they always seem to read sexual interest into our platonic conversations and became creepy over time.

This is why it also makes me rage on MN when this scenario happens and people do the "be kind- they're just lonely" garbage. If people are truly lonely then they wont only target women for company but yet this always seems to happen. It's always women they seem to seek out to relieve their "loneliness" and to me that makes it very obvious it's not just platonic company they seek.

Listen to your instincts and shut this down. Dont ever give your phone number out to anyone you dont know very, very well. It always ends badly (as I have experienced- I ended up having to block them).

Couldn't agree more, OP.
namechangetheworld, I can only assume you're being disingenuous and that you do in fact know what the OP means in this context by 'victim blaming'.

I do agree with you on that OP. I read that post and thought it had an accusatory tone.
"Stop giving your number out"

What? Stop having normal exchanges with other people? What??

What exactly have you been a 'victim' of? A man offering to make you a coffee in his kitchen?

He's coming on way too strong too soon and acting like you were on a date or something.
If you asked him for a walk and coffee it should have been just walk and coffee. Plus maybe one follow up text.
Inviting someone in, repeatedly texting at odd times, making remarks about cooking for you etc is too much. He's probably just desperate rather than dangerous, but you can't know for sure and anyway you can't give him what he wants.
I think you need to be fairly blunt with him if he does anything further - explicitly state what the limits are.

Stop.giving your phone number out, then nobody can text you at 1am in the morning.

If you are uncomfortable, block him from your phone and change the direction of your walks, easy peasy.

This, absolutely.

This.
Being lonely is one thing, weird time texting and offloading too much is another.

This would freak me out too.

He's definitely treating it as though you're both single, which obviously you're not.

Walking the dogs together is totally different to meeting his sister and having a coffee at his house.

If I were you I'd completely cut contact, sounds harsh but if you see him I'd just carry on walking and say 'sorry, can't stop'. I'd also block his number - no reason he needs it.

All these people feeling sorry for him don't have to deal with him - if he's giving you freaky vibes - please listen to your gut instincts.

No you're not being unreasonable trust your gut - dont meet again or take your hubby next time, make sure he gets the message.

DSis is that you? just kidding, pretty sure she doesn't use MN
But, this sort of thing happens to her too (and she has a dog). She is a friendly, confident woman, definitely sees the best in people and has had men occasionally misconstrue her friendliness as a come on.

"Tom" might not be doing that, but I strongly suspect he was.

Put a stop to this straightaway.

Even though we like to believe women can be platonic friends with men and that it can and does happen, I suspect most of the time men think that women starting a friendship with them like you have is because they are romantically interested. My platonic male friends are all people I have known since university or gay men.

Secondly, I think we really need to stop feeling sorry for lonely men with mental health issues and a sob story (in this case splitting with partner and the caring responsibilities). We are not there to fix men. You have to protect yourself in cases like this and very often this sort of thing leads to men latching on and becoming emotionally attached making it all the more difficult to end the "friendship" if the man oversteps the boundaries. (This would also apply to women too, it's not just a man thing).

If that sounds harsh, so be it. I've had too much experience of this sort of thing during my life and it's only in the last 8 years or so that I've woken up to the fact that I was regularly trying to help and rescue people at enormous cost to myself and having to extricate myself from difficult situations.

There's another thread at the moment about a man who latched onto the OP and quickly became a nuisance. OP doubting herself about blocking him and so on.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/relationships/5179099-what-to-do-about-this-man?page=1