Do cats grieve their peers? (kittens, eating, smelling, food)

[Janeace]

I've had 2 cats die in the last year. I had a total of six. When one dies the others show no sign of mourning or even missing the departed. I don't get it. These are house cats, in the same house with the others every moment of the day. How can they not seem to miss them?

[OdysseusNY]

i had a pair of sibling youngsters once (~7 mo at the time) and the brother died

the sister definitely had a behavior change after that. she would mew much more in the mornings outside my door and just generally seemed higher strung

i don't know whether it was true grief or the effect of being alone much more often or both. but certainly a marked change in behavior

it abated when i adopted another cat a month or so later, although it's hard to tell if it abated fully

she's a happy cat nowadays with her stepbrother (~ 4 years later)

[catsmom21]

Depends on the cat in question really, but many cats do grieve. I'm so sorry for your losses, perhaps the cats remaining just weren't bonded to the two who have left for the Bridge. Or perhaps they are still in contact, and so have no need to grieve.

My Red Boy (now a Bridge Angel himself) grieved terribly when he lost one of his life long companions. She and another female had raised him from the time he was a tiny kitten. He was 6 when the first female died and he was inconsolable even though he still had the other, whom he was also very bonded to. He hid away, I had to drag him out to feed him (force feeding) and medicate him. He looked for her at night, crying and calling and crying, all night long. It was terrible. After about three weeks I took him to the vet because he was getting so thin. He got a B-12 shot and the trip seemed to break the thrall of his grief. He continued to look for her, though, and it took a whole year before he started to play again. Even after he recovered, he had many happy years after, but he lost a spark that never came back. He developed a separation anxiety, not for me, but for any other cat. Any time I left the house with a cat in a carrier, he was right there by the door waiting for me to come home with that cat.

If a cat had to be left at the vet he would be frantic, looking and looking for her.

Even when all was calm, countless times I would watch him do this: he would wake from a nap and then do a tour of the entire apartment checking for all the other cats, to make sure they were all still here.

I dreaded the time when the other girl would leave us, but somehow it wasn't as bad. He was prepared for her leaving, she weaned herself from him first, and I made sure he said good bye (the other kitty, .he didn't get to say goodbye) He was sad, and he missed her, but he knew where she was, he didn't look for her. She hung around awhile in spirit, too, making sure he was okay.

Then, when he died, my lovey cat really missed him. She knew he was sick, she knew he was gone, and she knew why, but, she missed him. She did not grieve too long though, only a couple of months.

Other cats, during these various losses, did not show any signs of grief.

[nancy thereader]

Then, when he died, my lovey cat really missed him. She knew he was sick, she knew he was gone, and she knew why, but, she missed him. She did not grieve too long though, only a couple of months.

Other cats, during these various losses, did not show any signs of grief.

This is not unlike people when you think about it.

[jasper12]

One cat did not even blink an eye when his "brother" left. I think cats live in the "here and now ". A good lesson to learn from cats.

[Ivorytickler]

I'm going to have to go with yes. I inherited my dad's cat when he died. I had a picture of my dad on a key ring attached to my purse handle. He used to curl up with the picture. It's been 5 years and he still seems to know who is in the picture (which surprises me as I thought they didn't have memories that long) but he doesn't curl up with it anymore. He just looks at it now. He does not bother with any other pictures in the house.

I've had cats who seemed to mourn the loss of a peer and cats who didn't. I do think they're more likely to not mourn if they know the other cat is dead. They seem to keep looking for them if they never saw them after they died but I have had one who kept looking even though she saw her sister dead.

[goyguy]

Weasie and Puppy (siblings) were brought to live with me in December 1992, when they were about four months old. Sadly, Puppy vanished just ahead of a blizzard the following March. No trace of him was ever found. It will always stay eerie to me how his sister instinctively knew he'd never return home. After about a day and a half of his absence Weasie phased from high anxiety to full-fledged grief. For several weeks she'd mournfully wail while only reluctantly eating. Then one evening, she let out a loud groan mid-howl and ended her grieving period "just like that." As I watched in disbelief she went skipping through the house all set to live again. For the rest of our 19+ years together there was never a sign of her yearning for her brother. But when I held her in my lap this past January as her pre-euthanasia sedative took effect I encouraged her to go toward Puppy when she saw him. After she lost consciousness and before she lapsed into her fatal coma, all four paws twitched vigorously. The vet said that meant that Weasie was having a dream in which she was running. Even when I observed her in deep sleep - to the point of snoring - throughout her life I'd never once seen her do that. So there's no doubt in my mind that she not only did see her long-lost sib, she was racing to greet him.

Fast-forward to the ongoing saga of Blaliko, the stray female who found her way onto my property last summer. She and Weasie had a few confrontations which didn't deter her from occasional visits. Despite the mild winter, not so much was seen of her before or after Weeze passed. Then, as spring approached she began appearing more often - spurred on by the food and water supplies I was keeping on the porch for her and the other strays/ferals in the neighborhood. Before she could be captured, she became pregnant and then brought six kittens into the world. Five of the litter were successfully taken into custody in time for them to be socialized and put up for adoption. (Blaliko herself was TNR'd at the end of May.) The Animal Commission officers who assisted with the trapping efforts said that Blaliko reacted with hisses each time another of her offspring was being carted off, "but she wasn't super-aggressive about it." She also didn't give any indication of mourning or separation anxiety; it could be that she was just as glad to have lessened nursing duties. By Memorial Day she'd been spayed and her kitten count was down to one, that being the daughter I named Seteria.
It was due to her shyness and fast fancy footwork that Seteria evaded the fate of her siblings. With her still having eluded capture as of mid-July, I pulled out all the stops and managed to confine her to a certain area indoors on the 12th. After no small amount of effort she was taken into custody and transported to the vet. Not long after the Animal Commission van left, Blaliko turned up outside the locked window to the porch. She peered in quizzically with a worried expression. Well into the night she persisted in searching through the house and around the yard - and beyond - for her missing child. Although she didn't make a sound, she's a very meow-free cat as a rule so that didn't mean much. Upon Seteria's return the next day, she was initially overjoyed but was soon growling and hissing. This, I came to learn, could be attributed to Seteria's "smelling like the vet clinic." By the end of the weekend they were all the way back to normal in their interactions. And to this day they're closely bonded. Blaliko will "have her moments" when she can't be bothered and will tell Seteria so in no certain terms. The daughter's become somewhat less clingy. However, as a rule they're playful and affectionate with one another. So much for the "fact" that queens want nothing to do with their kittens once weaning has occurred.

It's definitely a case-by-case thing.

[no kudzu]

I almost lost a wonderful cat to grief when his brother died. there were other cats in the family but this pair were especially bonded. Yes some cats grieve when they lose a friend.

[tanner]

I had several outdoor cats while growing up. Two young cats were particularly close and would spend almost all of their time together. One morning when I went outside, I found that one of those two cats passed away. The other cat went right to its body and shook it in a panicked manner and ran around the body for a while as if it was worried.

I don't remember seeing any of my other cats react to their peers' deaths like that, but maybe these two just had a special relationship.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

When my sweetie Satay died in January 2006 (at the age of 14-1/2 years -- I'd had her since she was 6 weeks old), her littermate Mabel kept looking for her. I would feed them wet food first thing in the morning, and the day after Satay died, Mabel didn't even eat the food at first (which was NOT like her at all) -- she kept circling the kitchen island (where I fed them) and was clearly looking for Satay. That lasted a few days and broke my heart every morning.

Mabel died a year and a half later at 16. They were the first cats I got as an adult and there are still times when it hits me how much I miss them.

Here's a photo ... Satay on the left, Mabel on the right, lying on Mom's cats quilt.