He Wants Wife To Rehome Her Cats. Is He Right?

Fat grey cat who looks like the cat from the "i can haz cheezbugr" meme.Photo byanja_ol via Shutterstock

People love their pets, but sometimes they can create contention around the home. One man took to Reddit to find out if he was in the wrong for asking his wife to rehome her three beloved pets.

Why He Wants to Rehome

Typically, people want to rehome pets because they have a history of aggression or destroying things around the house, with the pet owner doing nothing to prevent it. Some pets can be an unexpected handful, and pet regret can be genuine.

But this case is different.

The Original Poster (OP) shared that his wife is pregnant and can no longer clean the litter boxes. It’s a health hazard for pregnant people to clean litter boxes due to potential parasites associated with cat feces, so his wife asked him to pick up the chore while she was expecting.

OP Breaks Down The Chores

Apparently, he couldn’t even do that one thing. He explained that his wife is a stay-at-home parent while he works full-time. She cares for their toddler triplets while keeping the house clean, gardening, canning, making fresh foods, and preparing dinner each night.

She’d typically handle the litter boxes without complaint, as the cats are hers, but she felt unsafe due to the pregnancy.

Oh, and OP Has an Awful Dog

OP also shared that he has a dog that he never bothered to train. His wife hates the untrained dog but deals with it because her husband loves it.

In a separate comment, he also dropped that because she stays home all day, caring for the dog falls to her. “She does take care of my dog,” he admitted, “While I wouldn't say I fully expect it, I guess that I subconsciously do in a sense because she's home all day with my dog.”

He later admitted that even the kids hate the dog, but they love the cats.

OP Would Rather Rehome Cats than Clean Litter Boxes

OP’s wife asked that he handle the litter boxes for the next 20 weeks until she gives birth. At first, he said he would, but kept forgetting, saying he was too tired when he got home.

“Because of my long hours and generally being completely exhausted when I get home, I usually forget to clean it myself.”

Rather than set a reminder or even pay someone to do it, the OP told his wife she should rehome the cats.

“I think rehoming them (at least until end of pregnancy) is the best option, so I suggested it to her. She's 20 weeks, so it wouldn't be a god awful length of time to re-home them before she got them back anyhow,” he said.

Wife Flips Out

OP’s Wife was justifiably upset. How dare he ask her to rehome her beloved pets because he’s too lazy to chip in around the house?

“She lost it, however,” said OP, apparently baffled by his wife’s reaction. “She told me that I'm selfish in expecting her to re-home her cats because I "don't want to pick up one chore around the house."

Was OP Wrong?

OP came to Reddit to find out if he was wrong. He clearly sees rehoming as a better option than helping out and can’t understand why his wife disagrees.

“I was truly thinking of it from a safety aspect of things, and she just seems to think I'm being selfish,” he said.

Reddit Responds: OP is Awful

We don’t know what OP was expecting, but Reddit teamed up on him to support his wife.

“She’s pregnant while caring for TRIPLETS.” stated one. “And you can’t remember to clean the cat box for the next 20 weeks?! Because YOU are too tired?! Wow. Maybe she needs to rehome you.”

Another added all the extra work she does to clarify how much OP’s wife does for the family. “And she home-schools, grows their food, and "generally keeps the house clean."

Although we can all understand that working 10-14 hours per day is exhausting, OP needs to realize his wife works just as much and doesn’t get any time off.

Rehoming is Too Drastic for this Problem

Many users pointed out that OP has numerous options that he refused even to consider and found it suspicious that he jumped to the most drastic choice.

“OP, put a reminder on your phone and scoop the damn litter before your saint of a wife leaves your a**,” said one, highlighting a simple solution to his excuse of forgetting.

“Pay a neighbor kid $50/week to come scoop the box every day after school. It’s a ten-minute chore max. Or hire a dog walker to take some of the stress off the wife with the dog and offer a little extra to do the cat litter,” recommended another.

“Just buy self-cleaning ones,” advised a third. “Not even the massive litter robot one, are smaller more traditionally shaped, and way less expensive ones. It'd make everyone's lives easier going forward with that many cats and kids running around.”

Clearly, there were multiple solutions to this problem that OP didn’t want to consider, making him an even bigger jerk.

OP is a Giant Jerk

Reddit’s consensus is that OP is a selfish jerk.

“He's a weasel,” said one. “He leaves out that she cares for his dog until we call him on it. He pretends he somehow doesn't know phone alarms exist. He thinks he can manipulate the situation, not anticipating that any reasonable person will look at this and realize that he is likely lying.”

“This is just absolutely pathetic behavior to the extent I doubt the post can be real. Your wife is incredible, she does so much, and frankly, she should be expecting more from you in terms of childcare and housework (and training your goddamn dog). But now that there’s ONE CHORE you need to do because she’s pregnant, you want her to get rid of her pets???” exclaimed another.

What Do You Think?

Do you think OP was wrong for asking his wife to rehome her cats, or do you see his point that it would only be temporary? Do you agree with Reddit that he’s a giant jerk who needs to help his wife more, or do you agree with him that he works long hours and shouldn’t be expected to chip in?

This article was produced and syndicated by Partners in Fire.