Pet behavior when one dies

3 years ago

It’s been interesting to observe the subtle changes in my two remaining cats following Mimi’s passing. She was definitely the queen cat who ruled the place. She was never close to the other two cats who came well after her. The older Siamese has become more vocal. He has never had much of a meow - just kind of a little squeak - but it’s now become more of an extended squeak and more frequent. The other younger cat, who we refer to as the ADHD cat because she’s always on the go, has now become quite a lap cat. She used to sit on the lap for about 30 seconds and rarely. Now she’s on DH and me every day and she settles in for a long nap. She also frequently sleeps on the bed during the day with the other cat, something she rarely did in the past.

It all makes me wonder what they’re thinking now and what they were thinking before. I never noticed this kind of thing when other cats passed - could be because I wasn’t retired and home in Covid isolation with time to watch their every move.

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cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

3 years ago

We adopted a mother and son pair of pups. Annabel was two and Clouseau was around 10 months or so. They had never been apart. When Clouseau was 10, he developed some neurological issue. We thought we were going to lose him then, but a last ditch effort with steroids gave him back his vigor and joy and gave us another year with him. Then, on the day of our first snowfall, he suddenly went downhill. He just lay out on the deck in the snow (he always loved the snow). I kept urging him back in because I was afraid he would freeze and we knew he was dying. We called the vet who will come to the home. Finally, before she arrived to out him down, we had to drag him inside because he couldn't get up. He died in the living room surrounded by all of us and with Annabel there, too.She seemed not to notice.

For the next two weeks, though, she went out and sat on the back hill and let out the most heartbreaking sound I have ever heard- a gut-wrenching moan/wail/call repeated several times. We had her for two years practically to the day of Clouseau's death. Here is our Clouseau.

And our Annabel.

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Comments (7)

bpath
3 years ago
When I was a kid, our dog had a litter of puppies and we kept one of them. The puppy contracted encephalitis when she was about 1 or 2 and thereafter had some, I guess, developmental delays and epilepsy. She became a bit of a pest to her mama. She was always wanting attention, getting in mama’s way. Mama J really wearied of it, tried to ignore it some, and it went on for a few years. The puppy remained a puppy even as she grew up, though she never grew as large as her siblings did. Mama J got old. Eventually, a particularly bad seizure ended the puppy’s life.

For a few days, Mama J walked around the house, looking into rooms, and walking out again. She was always looking over her shoulder. She‘d come to one of us and look quizzical, and she’d get a nice petting. After a few days, she realized the puppy wasn’t around to pester her any more. She was getting all the pets. She got back the spring in her step, and seemed a few years younger. She was back to being queen.
Bestyears
3 years ago
We lost Ash, an incredible dog-like cat many years ago. He was clearly the alpha cat in our household of four cats. In order of seniority, his sister, Kenzie was next. It was quite amazing to see her go from being fairly aloof to "Queen Kenzie" over the first month or so after he died. It made me feel a bit bad in a way -had she wanted to be closer to us all that time, but didn't feel she couldn't trespass on his rights (as AlphaCat) or something? She maintained the alpha role over the remaining troop of kitties all her life.
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lascatx
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Pets definitely react to the absence or loss of another. We took ne dog to the vet today and the other gets so anxious when we leave without her -- she was waiting at the door eagerly greeting us. The one we took to the vet will be 15 two weeks from today and is showing decline. I know we have a change coming -- I suspect the 12 yr old dog will become more protective -- I hope she adjusts okay.

Years ago, we were a 2 cat family. The second came to us a solid white feral (male) who was enamoured with my solid black female previously dumped at my dad's office property, spayed and declawed, so she had to be an indoor cat. Long story short, the feral got wounded, I put out food, caught him, took him to the vet, begged her to take him to a shelter because I couldn't seeing how wild he was when trying to bring him in. I couldn't take him to a shelter because I was sure he'd not be adopted and would be put down. She didn't disagree, but somehow I wound up agree to not only the vaccinations I took him in for, but also neutering and declawing him (there was already hissing and swiping with my female), taking a total leap of faith on him becoming an indoor cat. He pair that debt in spades -- he turned into my marshmallow cat. He LOVED the indoor life, played but was never destructive, and just melted in the laps of those few he trusted. It was all or nothing with him. My female was never seemingly terribly close with him -- she was a bit more aloof with us too, but she seemed annoyed if he tried to play with her or give chase. If I came home and found them both on my bed, one would be at the pillow and one at the end and that was about as close as they seemed to get. It took me by total surprise that after we lost the male rather suddenly to an undetected heart issue, the female stopped eating, stopped drinking. Nothing we could do would coax her once she gave up on him coming back.
She developed kidney and liver failure and there was nothing we could do to save her. We literally lost her to a broken heart. And that broke my heart all over again.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
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When Georgia developed heart disease and died, Homer went into a deep depression. I was actually worried about her (Homer turned out to be a girl); it took a lot of cuddling for Homer to behave like her old self.
just_terrilynn
3 years ago
When my sweet Maltese passed at an old age my Rottweiler was such a wreak I had to get him another little dog.
nutsaboutplants
3 years ago
Wow, that’s so interesting. Deep actually, IMHO. Scholars of the Supreme Court speak of an invisible balance that the remaining members of the Court must find when one justice retires or dies. When a liberal justice leaves a vacancy and is replaced by a conservative appointee, the moderate conservative justice somewhere in the middle would become the new moderate liberal. The same thing happens with siblings. I’m sure you can find myriad other instances of a rebalancing of roles and power.

Pet behavior when one dies

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

Comments (7)

bpath

Bestyears

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