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tl;dr: Will temporarily separating two female cats who have lived together for a decade depress them? Will it raise issues when we reunite them 9 months later?
Details:
My partner and I have two lovely girl cats who get on reasonably well but don't display "bonded" behaviour. They will both turn 10 this year and are in good health. They don't snuggle or clean each other, and one is clearly dominant. They don't fight or anything though, and they do interact and very occasionally play. They are both very social with us, though in different ways.
We are planning to live apart -- about 6 hours by air -- for 9 months due to a very nice (temporary) professional opportunities for both of us. We are wondering whether to send both cats with one of us, or to split them up.
Normally, we each work from home at least 1 day a week, so the cats have human company during the day 4 days a week. While away we'll both be working regular 5 days a week at our respective offices.
Our ideal would be to each take a cat for the 9 months we're apart. That way we each get cat time. We were once away from them for 4 months for work and were kind of bereft. Of course the cats were fine and happy to see us when we got home.
But will they get lonely if we each take one? Our worry is a human will be less present, and there will be only one human and no other cat, and that this might make each of them lonely or bored? Would the cats be better off together so they are less lonely, or does that not matter since they aren't bonded?
I'd love to hear from people with relevant experience, or with references to the science on this, as we don't really know. TIA!
tl;dr: Will temporarily separating two female cats who have lived together for a decade depress them? Will it raise issues when we reunite them 9 months later?
Details:
My partner and I have two lovely girl cats who get on reasonably well but don't display "bonded" behaviour. They will both turn 10 this year and are in good health. They don't snuggle or clean each other, and one is clearly dominant. They don't fight or anything though, and they do interact and very occasionally play. They are both very social with us, though in different ways.
We are planning to live apart -- about 6 hours by air -- for 9 months due to a very nice (temporary) professional opportunities for both of us. We are wondering whether to send both cats with one of us, or to split them up.
Normally, we each work from home at least 1 day a week, so the cats have human company during the day 4 days a week. While away we'll both be working regular 5 days a week at our respective offices.
Our ideal would be to each take a cat for the 9 months we're apart. That way we each get cat time. We were once away from them for 4 months for work and were kind of bereft. Of course the cats were fine and happy to see us when we got home.
But will they get lonely if we each take one? Our worry is a human will be less present, and there will be only one human and no other cat, and that this might make each of them lonely or bored? Would the cats be better off together so they are less lonely, or does that not matter since they aren't bonded?
I'd love to hear from people with relevant experience, or with references to the science on this, as we don't really know. TIA!