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Anonymous
Do cats grieve? What do you think, /an/?

Why?: My cat seems completely apathetic to her sister's death. I'd be quite surprised had her reaction been anything but apathy, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that cats/many animals in general grieve in ways imperceptible to humans. So... thoughts? Experiences?
>> Anonymous
I've been around cats pretty much consistently since I was born. Grief in animals, much like in humans, is very individually received. Most of the cats I have had did not seem to notice when a friend or relative passed on. Or, if they did, they were quite stoic about it.

However, there were two exceptions.

I had two manx cats who were brothers, Cypher and Vinny. They were pretty much inseperable growing up. This was also back in the day when I lived with my family, and they were indoor/outdoor cats (which I DO NOT advocate; please keep kitties inside only). Well, Vincent, who was not too bright, was killed by a car one night. I buried him in the backyard, and Cypher would spend most of the day at his gravesite and cry at night. He was sick and refused to eat for about a week. We took him to the vet, who found nothing wrong with him other than dehydration from refusal to drink. He died three days later.

Also, my grandfather had a cat for ten years who never the backyard and followed him around 24/7. About four days after my grandfather died, the cat disappeared. We assumed that he had died somewhere... and then almost a year later he showed back up, emaciated but otherwise healthy. We like to think that he was out searching for my grandfather, but I have no way to prove that. Striking coincidence if that wasn't his intention.
>> Anonymous
My neighbor had two cats, years ago. One died. A few days later, the other cat died as well.

I've never actually witnessed adult cats sharing a bond that resembles anything close to actual friendship. It makes me skeptical that the second cat actually died of the emotional trauma of losing a companion rather than both cats having been exposed to the same poison or something.
>> Anonymous
When one of my dogs died, the other was noticeably depressed for a few months afterward. Right in the beginning, she didn't want to play much anymore and was reluctant to eat as well.
>> Anonymous
Im 99% sure at least some cats grieve. My grandfather died last year, leaving my grandmother and her kitties. Last month I spent a couple weeks at her home doing a volunteer thing at a local sea turtle hospital, and whenever I would sit in the chair that he sat in, her cat would meow at me like "wtf u doin get out of that chair".
>> Anonymous
When my dog died my cat was more mopey and started sleeping in different places. After a few weeks she was back to normal.
>> Anonymous
Shortly *before* my last dog died, my cat started sleeping on top of him instead of on top of me. Prior to this, the cat would usually react with "ew, he smells bad because he's so old!" faces if they were put together in any non-playing situation. (He was dying of liver failure, and my mom didn't want me to put him down until she got back from a year abroad, and he was her dog.)
>> Anonymous
>>119914
Cats can rarely share a close bond, and in these cases, they will indeed grieve if one of them dies. I've never witnessed that myself, but my mother has (the cats were brothers from the same litter).
>> Anonymous
I had a cat very much attached to one of the family dogs. The dog managed to escape from our yard one 4th of July and never came back. The cat disappeared a couple of days later. This had all been shortly after we'd moved, and we wonder if the cat went back to our old home to look for her or something. Kind of a romantic idea, but we hope for the best.

Not long ago, I moved temporarily, separating two cats who I had fostered when they were blind little babies. The cat I took with me is mostly oblivious and didn't seem bothered, but the cat we left with my family would sit staring out the windows when she never had before, roaming through the house crying like she was lost, etc.
>> Anonymous
If you die and you're alone and you have a cat, the cat will eat you. That's what I hurd anyway. That and that u liek mudkips.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
pictured here are "the brothers" "black baby" and "Poopy"

One day Black baby ran away for about a week and during that whole week his brother would sit by the window and cry. They're extremely close so poopy was pretty distraught. Luckily, his brother did come back.
>> Anonymous
>>119955
If you were locked inside an inescapable fortress with your friend, and your friend died, and there was nothing else edible available while you waited for being rescued, wouldn't you eat your friend?
>> Anonymous
>>119967
I'd probably be the cause of my friend's death. So yah >:3
>> Bitter Anon !!WJLRQ1cwCyZ
     File :-(, x)
Animals definitely are capable of grieving. Famous examples of this are: elephants, whales, many types of birds, lions, and humans.

If the cats were not close, then they likely don't care too much if the other one dies. I have only seen two instances of this.

One, was Snailkitten. Suprisingly, it wasn't over the death of her kitten, who she seemed extremely indifferent to, it was a rat. She was "raised" by a pair of elderly rats, and once she got too big for them, I let her play with my most favorite rat evar, Stewie. He was sweet, huge, and LOVED to play with her. They'd spend hours running around in circles on the floor, and then they would curl up and sleep in his cage together. When Stewie died, she tried to sleep in his cage, slept on his cage, and cried a lot. Then she got knocked up and now kittens so!

The other was when my dog had to be put to sleep. He'd been very close with my tomcat, and while it's been three years, the tom still likes to sleep in the dog's bed and on his sweater (I'm a sentimental fool, I know, for not throwing them out)
>> Anonymous
>>120051

Nature probably conditions mother animals to not really be overly distressed when a very new baby dies, since it might affect her ability to care for her surviving offspring. But a friend on the other hand... Your story of Snailkitten and Stewie is both sad and sweet.
>> Anonymous
>>120051
Elephants, yeah.
They hold wakes for each other...
>> Anonymous
I had a cat when I was younger that had kittens. One of the kittens was very affectionate to EVERYBODY basically as soon as it opened its eyes.

It followed us around everywhere. One day, it was following my mom very closely and she turned around really fast and accidentally kicked it. She punctured its lung, and it died.

The mother cat looked for the kitten everywhere. She basically screamed while running through the house checking all of the kitten's hiding spots. Then she ran away for a year.

She came back, and was basically back to normal.
>> Anonymous
I have a siamese cat that lives with my parents still. When we got him as a kitten, we had two elderly dogs. They all got along great. They slept together, ate together, played together...

Then we had to put the old dogs down due to health problems. My siamese curled up in their dog bed and slept for what seemed like days. He stopped meowing (which is rare for siamese... especially him). He didn't eat.

After about a week, he went back to almost normal. He still hisses at the new dogs whenever they lay in the old dog's bed, though.
>> Anonymous
My friend had a flame-point siamese and a white german shepherd. When the dog died, the cat would not stop looking for him. He seemed really upset.

Maybe the sister cats weren't that close?
>> Anonymous
My grandpa had a cat that was really attached to him before he died. The cat didn't notice that he was dead, or rather just thought he was lost or went out. Whenever videos of vacations were played with grandpa in them and he was talking, the cat would call for him nonstop if she heard his voice.
>> Anonymous !4X8vLLNDE2
do i has it now?
>> Anonymous
This thread is very sad it almost makes me want to cry. My condolences for every cat/dog that died.

I was wondering about a few situations. If a cat runs away how does it primarily survive(trashcan etc?) and does it come back just cause?
>> Anonymous
My grandmothers late cat was brought to her house by its mother and taught to use the litter box by the mother cat. She later left him there at my grandmothers house and he would always sit at the door staring in the direction his mother left.

He did this regularly, and even if it wasn't what he was looking for, its a nice thought.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>120051
Snailkitten lost a kitten!? Eegad my internet dies for a few days and the world ends!
>> Anonymous !4X8vLLNDE2
     File :-(, x)
>> Anonymous
I used to have to outdoor cats, and brother and sister. One day, as I was heading out to work, I heard meowing coming from the back door. As soon as I opened the door, the brother jumped into my arms. I was kind of strange at first, since we had him, he never made a sound, he was always silent, but his sis wasn't. And for awhile he just kept meowing, but it sounded week, almost like crying. I put him down and headed out to my car and headed down the driveway. As soon as I stopped, I stared straight out at the otherside of the road, where my cat's siblings body lay, flattened on the pavement. So yeah I do think cats can grieve.
>> Anonymous
ITT, a surprising number of careless owners. O wate, 4chan...