Emotional blackmail is the lowest form of manipulation (kind of a long story) [View all]

Dealing with so many losses, the kittens, Sian, and now losing a 2nd Biden term in the White House, has left me with zero reserves.

Top that off with a healthy dose of emotional blackmail being dished towards me by a remote 'relative' by marriage and I'm done. She contacted me via Messenger to announce that I have 'lost her as a family member' because so many feral kittens have died, due to the nightmarish flea situation that was triggered by the unusually warm Winter. Not quite sure how I'm responsible for that, or why I don't get credit for weeks of sleepless nights, doing everything I could thing of to save those babies. Even though I couldn't, they were cradled and loved, right up until the end and they are buried with my tears. She had been messaging me, demanding I obey what she's instructing me to do. I won't go in to that because it's delusional. I had flipped her into my Facebook 'reserved' list she to keep her from seeing anything I post, so she'd stop bullying me.

She sent me that relationship death notice just a few hours after I lost my beautiful Sian. I hadn't even begun to stop crying. She shouldn't have been able to see my post announcing Sian's passing, in the first place, unless she's using someone else's account to stalk me, so I don't know if it was a coincidence or on purpose she messaged me at that particular moment. The 2nd possibility would not surprise me, at all. She is a radically anti vaxxer, obnoxious vegan who food shames as easily as she breathes. Toss in that she's a demanding, Type A personality OCD control freak and you see what I'm dealing with. Or, was dealing with. Up until the past few weeks we've been able to get along - admittedly because I was willing to bite my tongue and change topics. Often. But this last episode has pushed me too far. She's blocked on all of my social media and on my phone. Unless she decides to write me a poison pen letter, this should be the end of her harassment.

Side note: her fostering history includes taking in a known vicious dog who then killed her cat, one of her dogs and seriously wounded two more. Fortunately they and their TODDLER DAUGHTER were not at home when the attack happened. Yes, she took in this dog despite having a child in the house.

It's a mixed bag of results, removing her from my life. She lives about 700 miles away and I haven't seen her in 5 years but was going to visit, this Summer. OK, money will be saved so that's an up side. But her husband and daughter are precious to me and I've accepted that by removing her from my life, they might be collateral damage. I guess that depends on the strength of his character.

The moral of the story is, emotional blackmail is BAD. Compassion and emotional support are GOOD

I had several errands to run, today, but it really feels like a good day to stay in bed and let my furry boys snuggle me back to sleep.

Forgive my ramble/babble. It just sometimes feels good to unload.