Dogs love their owners more than themselves - and would do anything to protect them.
A woman has been left heartbroken after her husband told her he'd rather have her dog put down than continue paying for his vet bills.
Explaining how she adopted her dog before she got married, the 27-year-old woman says she considers him to be "part of the family" in the same way as her other loved ones.
Speaking to Reddit, she said: " My dog, Fido, has developed pretty bad allergies and requires immunotherapy. If he gets an especially bad outbreak of allergies, he can sometimes get staph infections and has to take a course of steroids and antibiotics.
"This can get a little bit expensive, but it's been nothing I would call serious. All his medications and vet bills probably average around £700 to £800 per year. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
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"The goal is, of course, to get him to the point where he won't have many outbreaks. So in theory, he will cost us less in the future."
Although her husband has been complaining about their dog for months, he never made his true feelings known because he knew how awful it would sound out loud.
That was until the dog's allergies started to act up more often.
"My husband always complains about how much he costs, and makes statements like, 'I won't spend anymore money on his vet bills', and 'we can't just keep throwing away money on this dog, he's just an animal'," she said.
"He has never come right out and said it until tonight. Fido has been a little extra itchy lately due to being outside more often than usual, and it's been making my husband upset.
"I asked him what was bothering him tonight, and he told me it was the dog. He said, 'I won't keep paying these bills. If he ends up costing us much more, we will have to put him down.'
"I was shocked. First of all, I don't feel like he has the right to make decisions regarding my dog. I felt like we had shared ownership, but his attitude about Fido's health makes me more inclined to not consider my husband his owner."
Now questioning her entire relationship with her husband, the woman cannot believe how her other half "could be so inconsiderate of her feelings".
She added: "I am not sure how I feel about being in a relationship with someone who doesn't feel the same about animals.
"And I'm also very hurt that he would say something like that, considering that he knows how much I care for this animal. I feel like it's an extremely callous thing to say."
While most users urged her to speak to her husband about this before leaving her relationship, others suggested he could be worried about their overall financial situation.
One user said: "This sounds like your husband being very worried about your financial situation - you might want to ask him about that, as there may be some underlying issues you don't know."
Another user added: "The woman loves her dog and she's distraught, she's also the only one here telling us her side.
"It's very possible that she's understating the severity of the problems (maybe taking care of the dog takes a huge amount of time and effort) and underplaying the amount of extra vet bills (which are already high at £800 to be honest).
"Her husband is not a heartless dog-murderer."
Do you have a dog story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
