A 70-year-old man in Singapore divorced his wife of 45 years because of her obsession with cats.

Based on District Judge Sheik Mustafa's written judgement, the couple, who were only referred to as "the husband" and "the wife", were married in May 1975.

They have three children and lived in a two-storey terrace house, which eventually became their matrimonial home.

However, they have not lived together since 2006.

Marriage dissolved

After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Sheik ordered the marriage dissolved, explaining that the wife's cat collection was "a nuisance".

The cats were allowed to roam around the house freely whilst not toilet-trained.

Hence, they urinated and defecated everywhere.

The stench of the cats' faeces and urine has led to many complaints from neighbours.

Authorities have also showed up to give the wife a warning, but she did not cease her cat collection.

How she became obsessed with cats

Her obsession began in 1997.

She claimed that her late mother appeared in her dreams, telling her to be kind to cats.

Thus, she believed that doing so will protect her family and bring them to paradise.

At the start, she went around feeding stray cats but her youngest son brought home a kitten one day.

From then, she began collecting strays and kept them in the matrimonial home.

The husband had urged her to rehome the cats somewhere else but she refused to do so.

The last straw

He said that he could no longer sleep on their marital bed as "it was constantly defiled".

Instead, he slept on a mat on the floor to maintain personal hygiene.

In 2006, one of the cats urinated on him while he was asleep and that was "the last straw".

He left the matrimonial home to live with his brother-in-law and the couple has not been in contact with each other since then.

Financial issues

The wife's obsession with cats has also led to some financial issues.

She admitted that she had withdrawn a large amount from the husband's S$500,000 retirement pension without his consent.

According to media reports the husband produced, she had a domestic worker to look after the cats in their matrimonial home and as well as in a rented house in Johor Bahru.

In addition, the wife allegedly accused the domestic worker of killing 40 of the cats.

Authorities had also taken action against the wife because of the cats and she was later declared bankrupt on account of her debt to the Attorney-General.

The husband argued that this was why the wife contested the divorce -- to avoid accounting to the Official Assignee her share of their matrimonial home.

Judge Sheik found that the marriage had broken down irretrievably due to the wife's "unreasonable behaviour" and their 15-year separation.

He added at the end of his written judgement:

"On a balance of probabilities, the husband has proved his case. The marriage between the parties has broken down irretrievably due to the behaviour of the wife, and due to four years of separation. There is no possibility of reconciliation. There are no minor children. For these reasons, it is just and reasonable to grant a judgment to dissolve the marriage."

Top image from Unsplash.