'I should be asked to choose, and tbh I'd pick my cat 10x over': 24-year-old girlfriend jealous of how well her boyfriend treats their new cat threatens to leave if he doesn't choose her over the feline

Look, this is not the first time that we have heard of someone getting jealous over their partner's affection for their cat. It's not. Things like this have even happened to us personally. Some people - especially ones who have never had cats and don't understand cats - simply don't understand why we cuddle them and kiss their little foreheads and spoil them rotten. It's always a little strange when that happens. When your partner demands you give your cat less attention… we see that as a potential fundamental misalignment of values.

But these things, at the end of the day, tend to be harmless. The most extreme stories we've heard were of people demanding that their partners choose between them and their cats. That is not the case here. Here, the problem went a little further. Jealously of the cat is not an excuse to treat the cat badly. It's only one more reason to add to that list of misaligned values, and yet another reason to potentially leave.

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"Am I overreacting? Breaking up over our cat."

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If this had just been about jealousy, maybe a part of us would have understood. It's hard to suddenly share a loved one's attention with someone else, even an animal, even a cat that you wanted. But mistreatment of animals is always a red flag - that is the part that is unacceptable.
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The forgiving side of us would probably have a conversation first, try to get to the bottom of the issue, see if there is anything that can be done to fix the situation. But we're actually very happy to hear that you're putting the cat first here rather than thinking about getting rid of it like so many other people have done in the past.
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