Unfortunately I lost my lovely female cat this weekend. she was found on the road. Not sure if she had been knocked over, no injuries! or she may have ate something. as you can imagine myself and the children are heartbroken however i am worried about my other cat. he is a tom and about a year older than her. they wern't overly close but they did used to play together and were always together outside. anyway since it has happened my tom has not really left the house and he is seeking lots of attention and cuddles. could he be greiving for her and if so do you think I need to get him another mate????

Sorry to hear about your cat, I know how you feel as it happened to me.

I would say that they do pine yes. Ours certainly did when her brother got killed on the road. Same thing as you, walking round the house and calling really loudly. We let her see Peanuts body, she had a really good sniff round and after that she settled down. It was like she knew that he was dead and accepted it.

I kept her in after that, I couldn't risk going through it again.

I'd say just give him loads of attention, fuss and cuddles when he needs them and I'm sure he'll soon recover.

X

I do believe they do....pine/ grieve, they have an uncanny knack of knowing something is wrong, wether they pick up on your emotions or the fact that he just knows whats happened and feels it's his job to give you more love than usual...so sad, my thoughts are with you.

thank you guys.... he is not himself at all..jarvis i am sorry to hear your story..I really didn't think I would be as upset as I am, it's awful...I will just give him and the kids lots of love and cuddles for now....thanks

Really sorry to hear about your little cat.
IMHO cats do pine, at least ours did earlier this year when the cat he'd grown up with died of kidney failure. Like yours he got really really clingy. He'd cry at night - it was terrible.
He saw his friends body and yes I think he did realise what happened. A month or so later things didn't settle down so we ended up getting two new kittens to bring him out of the pining. It worked a treat, although his relationship with them is veryy different - he's more of a father figure than a friend. Don't get me wrong he plays with the kittens, but he always watches out for them and if they overstep the mark, they know about it.

My advice - get another kitten and introduce them slowly over a long period. That said all cats, situations are different.

I'm sorry to hear of your little one's loss ladyB. In my experience some cats struggle with the loss or removal of another animal or a person and some of them struggle for months. Whether their struggling can be categorised as pining or grieving I'm not sure, but that doesn't lessen the obviously tough time that they're going through.

In my experience there are some cats who really do need a cat friend for them to be happy, but there's no way of knowing whether your other cat will accept another cat as an alternative. Bringing in another cat could stimulate your tom out of his struggle, but that could result in him reacting very angrily towards the new cat- if he's still looking for her there's a possibility that he would automatically reject any other cats brought in at this point.

It all depends on his nature- is he a friendly cat with others near by? I know that most of mine are fine and dandy with visiting cats, even those brought in to their territory as adults (I foster cats and they have repeatedly accepted new cats to their colony) but I also know that it takes Baby weeks or months of no pressure to accept another cat because she's a hand reared feral and all new things take time to accept in her world.

Personally I'd give it another few weeks before getting another cat, and I'd make sure that the cat you get is a friendly but lower social status queen, so that he doesn't feel that the new cat is too much of a challenge (and because we know that he's OK with girlies).

I wish you luck and hope that he's a bit happier soon.

Thank you Medusa. he is a very friendly cat. he was a bit wild when we got him but i think we got him just young enough to socialise him properly, he is a true gent. even with my youngest son and neice, who is 2, he tolerates them. he has never scratched or bit anyone even if he looks like he has had enough. he just kinda of sighs gives them a dirty look and keeps out of there way!!!! lol. I have never known him spit at or attack another cat even when they enter our garden. he just sits and stares at them.

I am a little worried though, he has not gone out for long, which is not him at all and is sleeping loads. he is eating but not running round my feet crying for food, as he usually does....they both used to run riot around the house, I am not used to him being so quiet.