A D is emminent for my H and I. We have no children but we do have 2 dogs that we both adore. I'm not sure how to deal with this? Has anyone ever worked out a deal with visitation for pets?

I know it sounds crazy, but I live my pets and I don't want to lose either one. Both of us want to keep them. Once the D is final we will probably live about 10 miles apart, so it's not so incovenient to have visitation for the pets.

Any advice would be helpful for people who have dealt with this situation.

Thanks!

Hi!

Going through the same thing myself. My husband and I are separating in April, and we have two dogs and a cat. While the cat was originally mine, it loves my husband and his dog much more than me.

Are your two dogs very close with one another? Is one more apt to be partial to you and the other to your husband?

He's keeping the one dog and the cat, and I'm taking the other. Our dogs are not particularly close and do not hang out or play with one another, so I think it'll make it a little more easy on them.

I will miss our Golden tremendously, but they will get to see one another. We've promised to "baby sit" if the other goes out of town and the other is around.

Good luck with your decision. It's never easy...

Our dogs play sometimes, but on when people are watching and paying attention. If there's no one around they just ignore each other.

We each hae a dog that is partial to one of us. So the decision of who is the main guardian of each dog is easy.

But my H wants to setup some kind of visitation to exchange dogs like every other week or something. and also so they get playtime with each other. There's also the babysitting scneario when one is away. He wants all of that.

The problem with this nonsense is that I'm not even sure I want to continue a relationship with any kind with my H. There's just to much hurt and pain right now. It would be easier to take custody of the one dog and that be it. But I know I will mis the other dog so much if I never see him.

This seems like such a silly thing to worry about in the grand scheme of things because there are so many other things to worry about.

Anyway, we will see what happens.

Hi - I had three dogs at the time of my divorce, and my ex-husband was extremely close with one of them. All of the dogs lived with me full-time, and my ex came about every two or three weeks, and took "his" dog Casey to his apartment for a weekend or so. Worked out well for all.

Casey has since gone to Heaven <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> and my ex hasn't visited the other two since..... <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

My STBX wanted one of the cats (I have 3) but I refused to split them up. He left without them and has only been back to steal stuff from the house, perhaps visiting them in the process. We have no visitation arrangement set up; they are my cats now.

My BIL was in a rather strange situation many years ago. He and his live-in GF were having major problems. They had a somewhat elderly dog who neither of them would be parted from. So they stayed together with the intention of splitting up when the dog passed away. Well, that dog lived on and on, way past the typical life expectancy. When she eventually died, BIL and his GF had sorted out their problems and they are still together to this day.

My wife neglected my finches and they died and she put up no fight over the cockatoo.

She didn't even have to pay me restitution on my murdered pets.

There's a specail place in ****** for people who kill pets and I hope I'm there to watch her burn.

Thanks gang for all the comments.

I see us coming to an agreement where we each get one dog and swap every few weeks or so.

Though I don't want the contact with my WH, I love my doggies, so its worth it. I will try and arrage swapping with a 3rd party if possible, for the time being anyway, until some of the pain passes.

I just read your post and my WW and I had the same problem. We had a dog that we both adored and we came up with an agreement in our divorce to deal with him. I have custody of him (I kept the house) and she gets to take him one night a week and every other weekend. I hate having the contact with my WW but it is only once every other week that I have to see her. The days that she takes him, I just put him outside and she stops by and picks him up and drops him off. We picked a place that was sort of between us to drop him off and pick him up for the weekends. It is good to have every other weekend away from him so I can take trips and visit friends without having to pay for a kennel or finding someone to watch him.

I have it similarly. My XW and I have 5 cats and a dog. She's the cat person, I'm the dog person. I know she has no interest in the dog. When we were talking about the split, she was saying she thought we'd have to give the cats away because she didn't think she'd be able to take care of them and she didn't think I'd want them. I told her that they were our "babies" and I wouldn't give them up. After 9 years, I've grown to love them. Later I told her I wasn't sure I would be able to take care of them and might have to give some of them away to a no-kill shelter after she moved away. I'm really not sure. She was pretty upset about me "breaking up the family" (there's some irony for you) and now is talking about taking one of the cats with her when she moves. I thought that was pretty presumptuous of her, especially since it was my favorite cats. I'm starting to rethink the decision. I still love her more than I love the cat, and I'll still have 4 other cats. If it helps her adjust to her new life, then I can probably deal with it.

I'm still not sure, though.