For 48-year-old web designer Barbarella Buchner, finding another man after her seven-year relationship ended was the last thing on her mind \u2013 because she believes she\u2019s found happiness, companionship and emotional fulfillment with\u2026 her cats.
Incredible as it sounds, Barbarella thinks she\u2019s found not one, but two soulmates in the form of her male cats, Spider and Lugosi. Her devotion to them is so strong that 10 years ago she even married them in an online ceremony.
“They\u2019re the loves of my life,” she claims. “I have no regrets and I don\u2019t care what people say.” Cat-mad Barbarella has always been an animal lover. “As a child I was surrounded by cats,” she says. “Our family regularly owned at least one or two. They were my favourite animal.”
At 34, Barbarella finally got the chance to adopt her own cats, and she took the opportunity very seriously.
“For me, it was like when you know you\u2019re having a baby,” she says. “Before you have a baby or adopt a child, you look on the internet to learn as much as possible and read lots of books. That\u2019s what I did before I got my cats.”
In March 2000, Barbarella adopted two eight-month-old tabby cats from the same litter at an East London animal shelter.
“It was love at first sight when I laid eyes on my boys, Lugosi and Spider,” she recalls. “I\u2019ll never forget that day.
They were rubbing against the cage and purring.
“I knew I wanted those cats\u2026 I could tell the feeling of love was mutual judging by their purrs and the way they were brushing their little faces against the bars. That was it; they were coming home with me!”
Barbarella \u2013 who now lives in Lanzarote \u2013 has had a few long-term relationships with men, but never wanted to marry.
She explains, “I didn\u2019t know if I had it in me to be a wife. Some women are built to clean up after their men, and I\u2019m not like that. But I never minded being my cats\u2019 servants. I\u2019m not a submissive person but I\u2019ll do anything for Lugosi and Spider.”
Barbarella says the cats were a comfort to her after her most serious relationship with her boyfriend of seven years broke down.
“My ex was the most important person in my life until things stopped working between us,” she says. “He\u2019d come home and we\u2019d argue over something, or he\u2019d want to chat when I didn\u2019t want to. We ended up sleeping in separate rooms. I thought there was hope for us but in the end, there wasn\u2019t.
“It was so painful breaking up with him. I cried for weeks after we split up, but the cats really helped me through the process. I would cry into Lugosi and Spider\u2019s fur. They were on the sofa with me all the time and I felt calm.
“After my boyfriend left, Spider and Lugosi were still there for me, helping me get through the separation anxiety and feelings of sadness. I have loved and lived with a couple of partners before but I realised that my love for my fur babies is so much deeper than anything I have felt for a human.”
In 2004, Barbarella decided to make their love official and looked into ways to marry her cats. She found a website called Marryyourpet.com.
The site has a list of rules they expect the human marrying their pet to adhere to \u2013 such as \u2018You are not allowed to mistreat your pet in any way\u2019 \u2013 and once Barbarella had been approved and had paid a small fee of about \u00a320, she tied the knot with Lugosi and Spider in a quickie online ceremony, where she clicked on the words \u2018I do\u2019.
“Marrying Lugosi and Spider was something I had to do, for myself,” she says. “Some people may call me a bigamist for marrying two cats or even call our marriage incest because they\u2019re brothers. But I\u2019ve never been one to care about what other people say or think, especially when it has anything to do with my cats and the unusual relationship I have with them.
“Obviously I don\u2019t have sex with my cats. It\u2019s just pure, spiritual, unconditional love on both sides, as simple as that.”
Barbarella spoils her feline hubbies and admits she would happily go bankrupt for them.
“My cats eat better than me. I want them to stay healthy so I\u2019ve put them on a pricey, raw meat diet. Their food is far more expensive than mine.
“One cat\u2019s meals cost \u00a317 per week. I also mix vitamin powder into their food which is \u00a350 per bag. I would take out a loan to save my cats or borrow money if they needed an operation. There\u2019s no limit to what I\u2019d do.”
To celebrate their three-year anniversary, Barbarella got a tattoo of her two tabbies on her right leg.
“I wanted something of Lugosi and Spider on my body. If they died, I would never marry another cat. They\u2019re my first cats and no other cat in the future can change that.
“If a man ever approaches me, I just tell them straight off, \u201cSorry, I\u2019m married to my cats.\u201d If they think it\u2019s odd, I don\u2019t care.”
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For 48-year-old web designer Barbarella Buchner, finding another man after her seven-year relationship ended was the last thing on her mind \u2013 because she believes she\u2019s found happiness, companionship and emotional fulfillment with\u2026 her cats.Incredible as it sounds, Barbarella thinks she\u2019s found not one, but two soulmates in the form of her male cats, Spider […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[117],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n