Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Wife chooses her mutts over husband
ANIMAL lover Liz Haslam barely pawsed for thought when her husband of 25 years told her: “It’s me or the dogs”.
The 49-year-old, who is currently fostering 30 rescue dogs, told Mike he’d better pack his bags – and she hasn’t heard from him since.
She said: “I thought after 25 years, he should know giving up the dogs was not what my intentions were.”
Liz met Mike, 53, when she was 16 and left home to move in with him when she finished school.
The couple got married in January 1991 and went on to have a son, Ollie, who is now 22.
They moved into a farmhouse in Barnham, Suffolk, with half an acre and Liz set up a boarding kennel and a bull terrier rescue operation.
She said she was happier than ever since Mike walked out. “He just got to the point where he had enough and wanted to slow down,” she said. “But I wasn’t prepared to give it all up. So he decided to go, and obviously that was his choice.”
The pair have had no contact since the split 18 months ago.
Liz admitted her passion for the animals, many of which have behavioural and medical problems, caused relationship issues.
Five of her current dogs are deaf, two have one eye, three are ex-fighting dogs, four suffer from defects and one has brain damage.
“We just drifted apart,” she said of Mike. “He was heavily into his work. I didn’t want to be a work widow so I buried myself in my dogs.”