Shantel VanSanten and Victor Webster Have a Huge Custody Agreement Over Their Dog Nova

Breaking up is hard to do! It's always sad when a marriage ends, especially when it comes to deicding things like custody of the kids. Well, One Tree Hill star Shantel VanSanten and Hallmark actor Victor Webster have finalized the terms of their divorce and it has a very interesting custody arrangement, for the divorced couple's dog Nova.

Just wait until you see what the late fee penalties are for Nova!

Entertainment Tonight reports, "According to the docs, Webster will have custody of Nova and VanSanten will get to visit Nova for an extended period of time. During that time, VanSanten will be required to share Nova's location. Then there's the $10,000 late fee -- if the actress takes Nova longer than three weeks she'll have to fork over $10,000 per day until Nova is returned."

$10,000.. per day.

The couple must really love Nova, who they rescued in 2019.

Related: In a Divorce, Who Gets the Pets?

Nova was adopted from a rescue organization in Mexico. She was found living in a sewer pipe with her babies and barely surviving.

Webster shared the following sweet snap of Nova on his social media two days ago.

View the original article to see embedded media.

Shantal previously shared an adorable photo with Nova too.

On one hand, it is pretty touching that they care so much for this beautiful dog that they want to make sure that custody is handled fairly, but on the other hand, that's pretty pricey if someone is late with the dog.

Have you ever discussed what would happen to the family pets if you were ever to split from your partner? I have not, mostly because I like my husband a whole lot and I don't see us divorcing, and also because I'm not even sure he knows how to clean a litter box so I'm not super worried of him taking custody of the cats.

This case between VanSanten and Webster is for sure not the first or last time we've heard about pets being part of divorce agreements.

Time Magazine reports that In Kentucky, a woman’s attachment to her cats, Beanie and Kacey, landed her behind bars. Lynn Goldstein was jailed for 30 days in 2001 after she repeatedly refused a judge’s order to give her ex-husband custody of the cats. She was caught hiding the felines at a friend’s office. “I would walk through hell and fire for those animals,” Goldstein, who eventually was forced to let her ex-husband take the cats, said at the time.

Proactive Steps You Can Take

If you're splitting with you partner, you may want to consider a family therapist or mediation counselor to help create a shared pet parenting plan.

If you have kids, you also need to consider how one parent taking the family pet may affect the kids.

Things like distance to their veterinarian, boarding facility, or local outdoor spaces should be taken into consideration too.

Hopefully you and your ex can work out an agreement that is fair to both you and the pets.