Pet over love?

Once, quite a few years ago, I had a couple of dates with a man. In a pub, a restaurant, and once to the movies. At one point, there was the moment he came to my house for the first time and after just ten minutes inside, he started sneezing and itching and he almost inflated to the size of a balloon. It turned out, the gentleman was terribly allergic to cats and well, then you won't have a good.

Now I must admit that he wasn't the love of my life anyway, so it didn't take me too much effort to end things fairly quickly after this incident, because that ending was coming. I mean, you can't be with me if you can't stand cats and moreover, don't find cats fun. That just doesn't work.

Conversely, I can immediately swoon if a man does love cats, or at least pretends to in order to impress me. A previous love came over on the first evening at my place with cat treats “to win that crazy cat over” and look, he scored a lot of points right away.

“I can't imagine ever EVER putting Poes Disco aside for a man. Just the thought of it.”

Well, the reason I'm bringing this up is a study from dating site Parship that was published last week which showed that I certainly am not the only one who feels this way. Nu.nl headlined with “singles prefer pets over cohabitation” and I wholeheartedly agree. Ask me again when cohabitation is actually on the table and the person I’m going to do it with doesn’t want to live with Poes Disco, but I can't imagine ever EVER putting Poes Disco aside for a man. Just the thought of it. Don't get me wrong, cohabitation in itself seems really nice but certainly not with a gentleman who refuses to share a space with Poes Disco.

And with me, 67% of the respondents would skip cohabitation if it doesn't work with the pets. Then, 26% of the male respondents would be willing to give up their pet compared to 8% of the women. But also a few steps back, pets are hugely beloved. 16% of the owners only want to date someone who loves animals as much as they do and 75% thinks that their own pet must at least be accepted by the other.

And that seems entirely fair to me. The clichés of single women and cats are all true and will therefore be upheld for a while longer, but oh well, a nitpicker who pays attention to that when you , we are already looking ahead to what his next option might be. are lying with a purring cat. Right?