A Singaporean Retiree has divorced his wife of 45years because of the many cats she keeps one of which urinated on his face.
A district judge ordered the marriage dissolved after hearing both sides and, despite the wife’s objections, ruled that the man, now 70 years old, cannot reasonably be expected to live with his wife after she developed an obsession with cats.
In judgment grounds issued on May 21, District Judge Sheik Mustafa said: “This feline collection created quite a nuisance. The cats roamed the home freely. They were not toilet-trained and would urinate and defecate indiscriminately.”
He noted the stench of cat faeces and urine from the matrimonial home led to numerous complaints from neighbours, causing the police and other authorities to show up and warn the wife, now 67 years old.
“Nevertheless, she did not cease her feline collection,” the judge added.
In his grounds, the judge laid out the problems the couple had faced since 1997.
The husband said that his wife developed an obsession with cats at the time after her late mother appeared in her dreams, telling her to be kind to them.
The wife began believing that looking after them was her only way to “cross into Paradise”. She started going around feeding stray cats and adopted some of them, taking them into their home. Their youngest son also took a kitten home.
The judge noted: “This feline collection created quite a nuisance. The cats roamed around the home freely. They were not toilet-trained and would urinate and defecate indiscriminately.
“There was a stench of cat faeces and urine emanating from the matrimonial home, which led to numerous complaints by neighbours. The police and other authorities turned up and warned the wife. Nevertheless, she did not cease her feline collection.”
No longer able to sleep in their bed which was “constantly defiled”, the husband began sleeping on a mat on the floor instead.
But by 2003, he could not tolerate this any longer and called the police to show them the conditions in which he lived. The officers told him it was a domestic issue and left it at that.
He then began avoiding his wife as much as possible.
After he retired in 2004 and used part of his pension to settle their outstanding mortgage, the rest was deposited into five joint accounts as suggested by his wife.
In 2005, he discovered that there were only two accounts in his name containing S$100,000. He immediately closed them and moved the cash to a new account solely in his name.
Their marriage deteriorated further and he eventually left to live with his brother-in-law. He has not returned since 2007 and has stopped contacting the woman.
The husband also claimed that his wife stopped him from seeing their children, even preventing him from visiting their son in an intensive care unit. No further details were given.
He submitted a newspaper report that showed that their daughter was fined in the State Courts for failing to pay her domestic worker. The helper had looked after the cats in the couple’s matrimonial home and in a rented house in Johor Baru, Malaysia.
His wife was made bankrupt after being ordered to pay costs for legal proceedings over a lawsuit she filed against the domestic worker’s employment agency. She had alleged that the helper had killed 40 of the cats.
District judge Mustafa said that he did not rely on these articles, as they did not prove or corroborate why the man left home.
He added: “I considered the possibility of reconciliation. I find that there is none. The parties’ attitudes are utterly not compromising; the husband is insistent on ending the marriage, and the wife is in vehement refusal to end the marriage.
“The couple have been consciously estranged from each other for 15 years. That is a long period of time by any measure. There is no ember of love or affection left to rekindle.”
He also ordered the wife to pay the Director of Legal Aid S$3,000 in costs. – Today Online.
