A retiree divorced his wife of 45 years after she developed an obsession with cats and began collecting a large number of the animals at home.

Man divorces wife of 45 years over company she kept – cats

AFTER being married 45 years, a retiree divorced his wife because of the cats she kept, one of which even 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, who is 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 that the stench of cat faeces and urine emanating from the matrimonial home led to many complaints by neighbours, leading the police and the other authorities to show up and warn the wife, who is now 67 years old.

“Nevertheless, she did not cease her feline collection,” the judge added.

The “last straw” was in 2006 when one of the cats urinated on him while he was sleeping.

He left the matrimonial home to live with his brother-in-law after a bout of arguments.

The man tried at least twice to return home but was chased away by the wife.

The couple have not lived together since, ceasing contact with each other altogether.

The husband, who worked as teacher for 38 years until he retired in 2004, and his homemaker wife were married in May 1975. The couple, who have three children, lived in a two-storey terrace house.

The marital storm started in 1997 when she woke up “one day and told him that her late mother had appeared to her in dreams, telling her to be kind to cats”.

She believed that doing so was the way to paradise and also protect her family. She developed an obsession with cats and went around feeding strays.

Their youngest son brought home a kitten and from then, she began to collect stray cats and adopted them into the matrimonial home.

The husband urged her to rehome the cats elsewhere but she refused until he could no longer sleep on the marital bed as “it was constantly defiled”. He slept on a mat on the floor instead to maintain personal hygiene.

She became “progressively more hostile and irritable” and the S$500,000 (RM1.5mil) retirement pension he received in 2004 was to become a subsequent source of friction between them as well.

The judge found that on a balance of probabilities, the wife did behave as alleged by the husband.

She had also created an unsanitary living environment by keeping a large number of cats at home.

He found that the marriage had broken down irretrievably due to the wife’s behaviour and their separation.

The wife is appealing the case.