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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

How do I choose?

227 replies

PotatoBanana · 22/12/2019 17:47

So I am planning to move in with my beloved whom I love with all my heart. It's not a simple move as I am crossing countries and leaving all my family behind to be with him.

The thing is, I have a cat. I love this cat like a child. I am an extreme animal lover.
BUT I got this cat when I was with my ex (he wasn't my ex's cat) and my beloved doesn't want me to bring this cat with me because it brings up a lot of bad memories and thoughts of my past relationship which are extremely hard for him to deal with.

I really have no idea what to do because with the status of my work/distance etc, if I do not move with my bf now, it's likely I will end up breaking up with him. Which destroys me because I really feel like he is the one for me. BUT my cat is also everything to me and parting with her hurts me.

What do I do?

OP posts:
averythinline · 23/12/2019 11:50

how much therapy/counselling ahve you had following your previous awful relationship...
have you completed the on line version of this at least - although would recommend finding a local one....
www.freedomprogramme.co.uk/

it is very easy to go from one poor relationship to another if you dont work out how to stop being so vulnerable yourself..

people who love each other do not cry because they have such 'awful thoughts'

your posts sound quite worrying that you cannot see how disfunctional this sounds

Cacklingmags · 23/12/2019 11:50

Choose the little pussy cat.
Bin the controlling nutter of a man - a little package of abuse waiting for you.

Weebitawks · 23/12/2019 12:38

Nice non abusive men do not make people get rid of their cat under these circumstances.

StapleTakerOuter · 23/12/2019 12:42

Holy shit he’s really kicking off about YOUR car that existed during a previous relationship

Fucking hell. What more will you learn about him ....

FlyingPenguine · 23/12/2019 12:46

No way should you leave your job and life to be with this controlling prick. The cat is a red herring, he will make you pay the price for having a past relationship forever, he wants control over you.

MikeUniformMike · 23/12/2019 12:46

my beloved whom I love with all my heart.
No, you think you do.

It's not a simple move as I am crossing countries and leaving all my family behind to be with him.
Leaving all your support structure.

The thing is, I have a cat. I love this cat like a child. I am an extreme animal lover.
That is not extreme. That is normal for me.

my beloved doesn't want me to bring this cat with me because it brings up a lot of bad memories and thoughts of my past relationship which are extremely hard for him to deal with.
Let him find himself a virgin with no past whatsoever then.

I really have no idea what to do because with the status of my work/distance etc,
Sounds like you are also giving up your career.

if I do not move with my bf now, it's likely I will end up breaking up with him.
Has he given you an ultimatum?

Which destroys me because I really feel like he is the one for me.
Your standards seem pretty low.

BUT my cat is also everything to me and parting with her hurts me.
Then don't part with her.

What do I do?
Kick the controlling twat into the long grass, and look after yourself, your career, and enjoy having your friends, family and Dcat around you.

ChristmasSweet · 23/12/2019 12:56

Op, he doesn't care that he wants you to give up your cat. Those tears he cries? Fake. Completely fake. He doesn't give a shit about the cat. He wants control only, over you. He is abusive. I'd hazard a guess that if you don't choose his way soon, an 'accident' will happen to the cat.

Dump him before your cat is injured or killed by him.

toggenberg · 23/12/2019 14:00

Absolutely no question Op,

Keep The Cat!

Dump the Twat

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 23/12/2019 14:49

my beloved doesn't want me to bring this cat with me because it brings up a lot of bad memories and thoughts of my past relationship which are extremely hard for him to deal with

Massive red flag here. Please put the brakes on. Don't give up everything and move across the country to be with his man. He sounds very controlling.

And definitely don't give up your cat!

OhioOhioOhio · 23/12/2019 14:59

Keep the cat. And I don't even like cats.

1111Cleopatra · 23/12/2019 15:26

Dump him! My partner is allergic to cats so when he moved in with me he started taking antihistamine everyday. He never even suggested that the cats go and if he had, I’d have chosen the cats everyday of the week!

annielouise · 23/12/2019 16:07

Please don't dump your cat. You should never have been put in this position by your boyfriend. He's really not mentally healthy and the very fact you appear to be siding with him re the cat despite every single person saying to you he's bad news indicates you're not totally mentally healthy yourself. You will live to regret giving your poor cat up. He's shown his true colours by even asking you. He's a shit.

annielouise · 23/12/2019 16:09

What your boyfriend should have done when he has these feelings about your ex is keep them to himself and work his way through them, not dump them on you to solve. This is the thin end of the wedge. He will lay something on your about how you doing this or that triggers him as it brings back memories of this or that until you'll be too scared to breathe. He's very much controlling and will be abusive.

JustASmallTownCurl · 23/12/2019 17:05

How long have you been together?

How long after your last relationship did you get together?

Did this relationship get very intense very quickly?

This man doesn't love you enough to put aside his ridiculous and incredibly unhealthy level of jealousy so you can keep your lovely little cat.

He's a wanker.

category12 · 23/12/2019 18:26

I think OP has left the thread after not getting the kind of answers she hoped for.

Orangepancakes · 23/12/2019 18:44

He's jealous of a cat. Jesus Christ. Run!

Redyellowpink · 23/12/2019 19:01

don't fuck with cats

Whatisthisfuckery · 23/12/2019 19:31

Fucking hell OP, you say you love the cat like a child but that you’re considering giving it up to move countries for a man who gets all upset because he can’t cope with the fact that you have a Past, and your cat, a bloody cat ffs who knew your ex? You knew your ex, you had sex with your ex, you no doubt had his penis in your mouth and his semen and sperm inside your body. If he can’t cope with a cat who was in the same place as your ex how will he cope with that?

Firstly, if yu’d leave something that you say you love like a child for a man then that says a lot about your attitude to relationships. It also makes it very clear that you are incapable of having a healthy relationship, because whatever the man wants he gets, and that includes leaving your own child if you had one. Just think about that for a second.

Let me ask you a question. When he cries about these terrible thoughts he has, is it just after a row or a disagreement where he has behaved badly? All my savings on the answer being yes, because that’s when men like this cry. Sadly OP they aren’t crying because they have a genuine issue they wish they could cope with better, after all if that was the case they’d be seeking help. They cry because it’s a way to reel you back in, because they’ve shown themselves to be the sort of person that any sensible woman would avoid like the plague. It’s a test, hw much will you take, what can they get away with if they can just convince you that they’re really, really sad about it.

So what will you take from him because he’s really, really sad? Where is the line where you say, ‘sorry you’re sad but no?’ Take it from me, someone who moved away from all my friends and family to move in with a man who was really, really sad about his insecurities, it’s much bloody harder to draw that line and say no once you’re living with him, in a place you don’t know, where there are no friends or family around to help you, where you don’t know anybody and where he is your only point of reference.

This has huge, clanging, echoing alarm bells ringing all over it OP, I can hardly hear self think for them.

You would be really, really, really fucking unwise to move for this man, because what he is sad about now will be nothing compared to what he’s sad about when you’ve moved, and you’ll be giving up more and more to make him not feel sad.

I can predict that you’re going to do it anyway but you have been warned. This is a very bad idea and it will not end well, mark mine and all the other posters words on this thread.

Please please don’t do it. Go and do the Freedom Programme, ditch this abuser in waiting and sort your own boundaries out before you even look at a man again because otherwise you’ll just bounce from one abuser to the next.

lifeisgoodmostofthetime · 23/12/2019 21:20

If you had a baby, would he expect you to leave your baby? He sounds controlling.

Why would he even give you a choice?

Keep your cat.
Always choose your cat.
Poor little fur baby

Delbelleber · 23/12/2019 21:26

Wtf the cat is basically your baby, what if it was a human child he told you to leave behind. Get rid of him and do not leave your poor cat

Bluebutterfly90 · 23/12/2019 21:26

Keep the cat, dump the guy.
If he felt bad about being insecure he would work to get over it!
Your pets are your family, and they trust you completely. Your cat doesn't deserve to be rehomed to save the feelings of some man child.

isseywith4vampirecats · 23/12/2019 21:34

when I met my partner I had cats from well before I met him the first rule of our relationship was the cats were here before you if you don't like it don't be in my life and he fully accepted this hes not as mad about them as me but he wouldn't do anything or say anything against them no way would I move to another country with someone who regards a cat as a threat

Shoxfordian · 23/12/2019 21:35

You're still in an abusive relationship
Keep the cat, dump the boyfriend
Seriously

harriethoyle · 23/12/2019 21:39

🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

(Team Cat)

Luckingfovely · 23/12/2019 21:43

OP you seem to have gone very quiet - I predict you are sobbing into a pillow somewhere about how no one understands him (or you) and how this is the greatest doomed love affair of the century.

Well, we all understand far more clearly than you do. I don't think I've ever seen a thread so much in agreement.

Please for the love of your cat, grow up, jettison these childish emotional dramatics, and realise that your life with your cat, family, and career is exactly where you need to be.

You will destroy your own life if you give everything up for this pathetic, manipulative, abusive twat.

It's not a love affair, it's pure stupidity. Keep reading that until you get it.

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