Dying cat ? about your cats response

I have seen their cat friends defending them by keeping other cats away from them when they are terminally ill. My Stumpy is the alpha and has had an auto-immune disease for the last 13+ years. When his health gets bad, Spanky stays with him to defend him against anyone else who might want to take over as alpha. He's been doing this for the last 4 years.

My mother used to have a little white and black kitty named Erin. When Erin got old she had CRF and also went blind. My mother has a much younger big comfy calico cat named CeCe who took over as Erin's protector.

I used to drive up to my mother's sometimes to give Erin sub q fluid. CeCe would not allow me to do it at first. After inspecting all the equipment she kept climbing on my lap and crowding Erin off.

Finally I called to my mother that CeCe wouldn't let me help Erin. Mom came in and held Erin on HER lap and CeCe let me proceed. CeCe guided Erin all over the house.

As for my own kitties, as Ootay got frailer, Tolly, who was deeply bonded to her anyway, more and more wanted to sleep on top of her. I know he just wanted to protect her, but I worried he would hurt her, being twice her weight. Ootay by then was under 5 pounds.

However Ootay had a special bed that Tolly never joined her in, and as the time came closer Ootay slept more and more in her Bathroom Circle Bed, away from Tolly. I am positive she did that to help him get used to doing without her. Tolly was very dependent on Ootay.

Cats do form very deep bonds with one another. It's a wonderful thing, but terrible when one is left, until the one left adjusts.

Not only do cats do this, but cats and dogs too.

Years ago my first German Shepherd, Tara died suddenly - heart attack. She was 15 years old. Her best friend was Leo the cat.

After Tara passed to the Bridge, Leo lay down on Tara's bed for a while, then he ran upstairs and hid in my daughter's bedroom, would come downstairs every so often, search round the house then go and sit in Tara's bed and howl. Even when we removed Tara's bed, he kept going to the same spot and howling. It really was pitiful to hear him crying for his friend.

He kept this up for about three weeks, apart from eating and using his litterbox and one day he just came downstairs and carried on normally.

I do believe he grieved for his doggy friend.

When we had to have Lucy PTS, she distanced herself from all of us by hiding under the bed. Three nights before she went to the Bridge, she jumped up on the bed, came under the duvet and cuddled up to me for a while, then sat on my pillow, stayed there for about five minutes, jumped onto my husband's hips (he's a big man and she always liked sleeping on him this way), stayed there for about 5 minutes then went back under the bed.

That was the last time she ever did this except for our last morning together and she came under the duvet for a few minutes, then the pillow then disappeared back under the bed.

I think it was her way of saying "goodbye".

God. How I miss her

I've seen both dogs and cats react in very uncanny and spiritual ways. When my friend was diagnosed with cancer she wanted to die at home. She had a hospital bed in the living room and I would go over and take care of her. Her three dogs and four cats were all asleep around her bed when she took her last breath. At that moment she passed her dogs jumped up, startled, looked up in the ceiling over her bed and began howling. It was a very odd thing. I truly believe that they were able to see her spirit as it left her body. I think our animals are given so any of these gifts. they are so much more pure than we are.
My Little Man Tate and Rattles were very close. When she got sick and it was time to let her go I brought her little body back home from the vet and laid her on the bed. Little Man Tate approached her and after a couple of sniffs he kissed her good bye. They do have a deep understanding--more than we will ever know

My GF had to put her 16 YO down in January due to CRF. While I did not notice a significant change in her 4 YO leading up to Coaties passing, his behavior afterwards was dramatically different. He wailed almost constantly. The only way to quiet him was to pick him up and that didn;t always work. What did work was getting him a new companion. GF brought Daisy home this weekend and we've barely heard a peep out of Sammy

We are lucky in that when we have to put a kitty to sleep, our vet will come to our house. When we put Hydrox to sleep, we put him on the foot of our bed on a small blanket. Our bed was his favorite place to sleep, so it seemed right to help him to the Bridge from there, too.

When the vet came into the bedroom for Hydrox, Whisper (our little grey girl who dearly loved Hydrox) came along in. When the vet gave him the first shot and Hydrox cried out, Whisper jumped up on the bed and nosed around him. As he got the second shot, Whisper licked him the whole time. We hope that he went to the Bridge knowing that Whisper was right there, caring for him.

The other cats came up to him, nosed around a bit, and then jumped back off the bed. But Whisper stayed there until Hydrox died, then jumped down and went out to the living room. It was like she knew her work was done and that her buddy was at rest.