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arts | yin shenglin

edit | coral king

around five in the morning, chen xi heard her boyfriend snoring and was sure that he was asleep. she secretly packed up the three cats in an airline box and cat bag that she had borrowed from a friend in advance, and slipped out the door, "carrying one on her back, one in front of her, and one in her hand."

this is the most important part of chen xi's breakup plan. previously, like a clichéd and melodramatic soap opera plot, she discovered her boyfriend's infidelity through his mobile chat records and decided to break up immediately. what is more difficult to deal with than the intimate relationship of more than three years is the ownership of the three cats.

she searched a lot of "pet disputes" on social media platforms, and finally decided that the most effective way was to "steal" the cat. even though she had evidence of her boyfriend's infidelity, she did not really break up with him, but just calmly proposed a breakup. although she seemed calm on the surface, she was actually secretly plotting - before moving out of the house they rented together, she had to find the right time and take the initiative.

in this "reorganized" cat family, the eldest is a silver tabby cat, and the second is a ragdoll cat. they were raised by chen xi and her boyfriend before they fell in love, and their ownership is clear at a glance. but "xiao pang" is the result of the eldest cat mating with another cat. chen xi did not expect that when they broke up, her boyfriend would not even want his own cat, but instead start fighting for "xiao pang" - the one with the best appearance and personality among the three cats. she had no choice but to coax him first, "i said you have no money and can't take good care of the kitten. first settle yourself down, and then see."

chen xi realized later that pets can be a good disguise for people. before they were together, her boyfriend often posted photos of cats on his moments, and chen xi thought he was also loving. later, she found out that her boyfriend initially kept a cat just because he saw other people's cats were very well-behaved, but the one he bought was not clingy, so he used the cat to get closer to the opposite sex.

after they started renting together, her boyfriend showed no special affection for any of the cats. "he only cares about money, such as buying them snacks and toys. he thinks that as long as i spend money, the rest is not my business." chen xi remembered that once, almost a month after her first child gave birth, she went back to her hometown. as a result, her first child's ear was swollen. she asked her boyfriend to take her to the hospital for a minor operation to drain the blood and sew it up. but her boyfriend said he couldn't do it and she had to come back. chen xi had to immediately book a return ticket for the next day.

like many people, chen xi also imagined what her boyfriend would be like as a father based on the way he treated his pets: "if he has children in the future, he will be the kind of person who finds it troublesome when his children are sick. how come he is sick again?" she said that out of a sense of responsibility to take care of them, she decided to take all three cats away.

●pet cat photo source ic photo

after the breakup, her ex-boyfriend would ask chen xi for her pet every once in a while. in order to avoid more conflicts, she consulted a lawyer in chengdu. the lawyer told her that the old cat itself was her personal property, and the kitten was considered joint property, but it depended on who contributed more. if she paid for the breeding of the cat and most of the daily living expenses, and could prove that she was the one who took care of it, then even if she went to court, the ownership of the cat would still be hers.

in fact, in the law, pets are considered "movable property" among properties. what couples and spouses are fighting over is not the so-called "custody rights" but the ownership of movable property. in recent years, as more and more people keep pets during love and marriage, disputes and lawsuits over pets are not uncommon when facing breakups and divorces.

the judicial documents website records traces of fighting over pets. a divorced couple signed a supplementary agreement to deal with their common property. in addition to regular property such as houses and cars, the ownership of the three pets in the family was specifically included in the agreement: the woman would raise them, and after moving, the man would pay 100 yuan per month for each pet, 4,000 yuan per year, paid every six months. they could visit anytime and anywhere. in the long marriage, the two did not raise children, and the ownership of the pets became the focus of negotiation.

a couple born in the 1980s could have agreed to divorce, but they went to court over a corgi they had raised for four years. the woman said that she bought the corgi herself and that she mainly took care of it on a daily basis, and she had already regarded it as a family member. she accused her husband like accusing a father who was absent from his child's growth, "he is usually busy with work, and likes to play games whenever he has free time, and lacks care for the corgi." the husband argued that although he did not take care of it much on a daily basis, he often took the corgi out for a walk. in the end, the presiding judge mediated and facilitated the two parties to reach a mediation agreement. after comprehensive consideration, the corgi belongs to the woman, and the man needs to pay for the care of the corgi every month until the corgi dies; the medical expenses incurred by the corgi will be borne by both parties.

●corgi photo source ic photo

in reality, such consultations also appear frequently. zhang qi is a civil and commercial lawyer in a third-tier city with more than ten years of work experience. according to her observation, relevant consultations mainly appear among couples born in the 1990s and 2000s, especially families without children are prone to such disputes. couples transfer the emotions originally placed on their children to pets, and pets are no longer simply animals, but close and familiar family members. "when a marriage breaks down, both parties basically regard the other party as a loser and the pet as their life." she has seen some couples with fierce conflicts. in order to compete for pets, one party will even go to the other party's unit at all costs, but no matter how they make trouble, the other party will never tell where the pet lives.

zhang qi said that in grassroots courts, if they encounter such pet ownership issues, judges will generally mediate. if the situation is really difficult or the dispute is fierce, they will generally consider many factors, such as the ownership of property before and after marriage, as well as pet care, pet size, and the economic sources of both parties. moreover, such cases are generally handed over to young judges for trial. if they are really put in court, the trial will generally not exceed ten minutes. "in the context of not having too many cases with a large amount of money or too commemorative cases, lawyers will basically not have different opinions with judges for a pet, and judges will not think more about a pet." compared to actually going to court, such disputes are more likely to occur in street offices and police stations.

xiao zuo once called the police while fighting with a suitor for her "furry child". according to her, a few years ago, a man gave her a rottweiler in pursuit of her, but later the two people's personalities were not compatible, and she refused to go further with him. the other party kept pestering her and harassed her in the name of looking after the dog, and later began to ask her to return the dog. xiao zuo had raised the dog for a while and had developed feelings for the furry child. after the dispute, she called the police. the police station came to mediate, and neither of them could produce evidence to prove who the dog belonged to. xiao zuo said that the police finally let the dog follow her first, and she went to apply for a dog license, vaccinated the dog, and completed legal and compliant procedures.

she and the suitor never met again, but she has been with her "furry child" till now. to her, the rottweiler has become her relative and the best "guardian". xiao zuo said that the rottweiler saved her twice. once, she met three drunken hooligans in the middle of the night, who whistled at her. when the three men came up, this large dog, who was loyal to its owner, rushed over and yelled at them from the farthest range of the leash, and the three men dispersed directly. another time, she went swimming at the beach with her friends, and a wave hit her, and her feet could not reach the bottom, "my cub swam over immediately and brought me over."

people compete for expensive breeds of cats and dogs, and also for "zero-yuan" chinese rural cats/dogs. sometimes what you want to keep is companionship, memories, and intimate time, and sometimes it may just be money. in august 2024, a couple born in the 1990s ended their three-year marriage through court mediation. the woman came to the court with two pet boxes containing a batch of turtles that her husband bought from a pet store for 180,000 yuan, and she asked her husband to compensate her in cash. in the end, the judge prompted the two parties to reach a mediation, and the 13 turtles went to the man, but the woman needed to be compensated 80,000 yuan.

in judicial practice, the significance of pet disputes seems to be very small. but in individual experience, pets are sometimes closer than friends and relatives.

raising a cat of her own was once chen xi's obsession. when she was a child, there were often mice in her home, and cats were regarded as temporary "tools": they were raised for a while when needed, and when the traces of mice disappeared, the family would take the cat away by bike and throw it away. chen xi was sad about this, but she had no ability to stop it. when she grew up and came to a strange city to live alone, she immediately decided to raise a cat.

cats are a constant comfort in a strange city. she sometimes feels that cats are much more reliable than people. when she first came to chengdu, she experienced a failed love affair and her career did not develop smoothly. in the gap between frustration and confusion, her mother suggested that she return to her hometown. she thought of the situation that cats might face and refused. now that she has more cats, she feels that she is further away from her hometown.

in the process of fighting wits and courage with her ex-boyfriend, chen xi frequently searched for relevant experience posts on social platforms and found that there were many more people with similar experiences or troubles than she imagined. a couple adopted a friend's cat, but when they broke up, they argued about who paid more for it and who the cat liked more. after a couple broke up, they decided to raise a maine coon cat together in turns at each other's homes, but they had a dispute over the subsequent consumption of the cat. some people also use pets as weapons to threaten each other, claiming that if they don't get back together, the next time they see the cat, it may be a corpse.

some people decide to collect relevant "evidence" during the process of dating: pet purchase receipts, payment records, pet certificate registration information, pet sterilization or breeding payment records, pet food and daily necessities purchase records, pet medical payment receipts, etc. in order to avoid unnecessary disputes, some people register all their own information when they bring cats back from adoption agencies, swipe their own cards, give the cats their own names, and register their own contact information in the implanted chip. the fear of losing a pet is far greater than the fear of losing a close relationship with a person.

after chen xi forwarded the chat records with the lawyer to her ex-boyfriend, he did not ask to return the cat to her again, but only asked him to keep it for a while. chen xi made up some excuses, saying that the cat was in heat, had a skin disease, and had diarrhea. the ex-boyfriend did not reply to her message for a long time, and finally just said, "thank you for your help."

chen xi arranged a special room for the kittens in her new residence, and asked a aunt to clean and disinfect it regularly. her ex-boyfriend had come to see the kittens twice before, and chen xi was afraid that her boyfriend would steal the cats back, so she repeatedly warned the cleaning lady not to tell her the password to her home. she installed a surveillance camera at home, with the camera facing the front door, and moved the live studio directly to the residential area where she lives. "once i see a reminder on the surveillance camera, i will go home immediately."

(the characters in the article are pseudonyms)