I've often wondered how critters perceive the loss of a critter friend.

Are they afraid that they're doing to "disappear" next? Are they looking for their friend?

My opinion is that they know when a critter-buddy is not well, but do they comprehend death?

I have recently and unfortunately been witness to my two dogs and cats grief, my little girl recently passed away, we took the dogs upstairs to see her, the St Bernard had tears running down her face, the pit mix put his head betweenhis paws as if he was praying it was so touching, they have not slept well and find themselves in the day hours in her playroom, the cats stayed by the front door for over a week, they watched as the funeral home took her. It is not an easy journey fo rhumans or our animals, they feel , they know!

So sorry to hear of your loss.

i have two cats and i believe they are a lot more in tune with things than most people give than credit for..myself running a temp with a virus a few days ago my 3 1/2 yr old mickey checked on me several times during the night and instead of usall wake up off standing on my chest and kneeding{all 18 lbs} haha....thought a nice licking to my face and forehead was in order! he has never done this before and i "know " this was to confort mom and make her feel better. yes ,they are very sensitive and i believe one of our good lords best creations!!!

I remember once when I was in bed sick with food poisoning, my dogs piled in the bed with me one on each side and kept me warm - I think they knew I was sick and wanted to help

I'm so glad you believe that these creatures know more than we give them credit for. In 2005 an elderly Cocker Spaniel was dumped in my neighborhood. I took him in even though my terrier mix was dying of bladder cancer. I worried that Hammer would think he was being replaced (yes I believe they can sense this), but the 2 boys bonded. Sunny waited patiently while I dealt with Hammer's many needs. Sometimes 4 legged creatures have more brains than the 2 legged variety.

Dr Coates, you might remember I mentioned we also had a loss with a single cat left doing some MAJOR clinging and physical breakdown.

There was an urgent need for foster care for some seized cats coming from inland and we took in a cat in that was "high maintenance" to help alleviate the load. Our long time boy, (Thumper), has stopped demanding constant lap attention, and I am not sure whether that is good or bad at this point. At 14 Thumper can get to the point of having enough and yesterday I caught him hiding under a chest of drawers in order to avoid "Mrs hiss and spit". He has always done well with male cats to the degree we often called him "Uncle Thumper" but you sure can't use that name on him now, poor fellow. We had requested a male foster because Thumper has never had good luck bonding with females, at least in the beginning. We hope this changes as Thumper did go through a bout of urinary tract irritation right after his loss. We don't want to see more physical signs of his grief.

Your reference to the ASPCA study suggested pets generally went through four stages of grief and that is a good thing as humans go through seven according to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who wrote, "Death and dying". I always assume that pets who have lost previous homes/lives also go through some loss as well because stages of loss affect humans no matter what the loss is, just in proportion to the impact of the loss.

Yes, I agree that animals are vulnerable to the same grief and mourning that we feel as humans. My border collie, Bingo, was very depressed and confused when she lost her older brother, Buster, to bone cancer. In a last ditch effort to help her through this grief, we plugged in a DAP pheromone emitter and she slept by that for a whole month. I truly believe that this helped her with the anxiety of losing her brother of 11 years until she was able to accept the loss.

I've seen deep and extended grieving in some of my pets, and briefer and milder distress in others. I adopt only seniors these days, so they don't have as much time with each other, but the last two -- a 9 pound 16 year old poodle and a 10 year old 95 pound Kuvasz -- both orphaned late in life -- bonded immediately. when I had to let the Poodle go last week the vet came to the house and I was able to keep Shakti's body here for a few hours. I laid him in his bed and Gus, his pal, went to him, touched noses and then laid down and put his head on the bed, resting with Shakti. It was a sweet demonstration of their brief but deep friendship. I have a pet sitting business in Seattle and I see pets grieving more often than many people would, and I always advise my clients to realize their pets are suffering the loss just as they are.

A wonderful story of love and the lost of a love-one. Most of us treat our Pet-Kids....like children, they are happy, when we are happy, If we are hurt, they try so hard to let us know they love us and it is gonna be ok, just the way we confort them.

So, can anyone reading this doubt that cats are capable of love?

Animals are capable of "loss" but I believe their emotions are not the same as human emotions as we define them, no. That doesn't make them any less in need of our caring and support.

It's absolutely true that animals mourn their companions. We've seen them mourn their humans so why wouldn't they mourn the loss of their animal companions.

When my English Pointer, Susie Q, died my GSD/Shar Pei mix, Barney, mourned deeply for several weeks. Susie was always Barney's favorite. I think he really saw her as his Mama and best playmate. When my other dog, Rufus, died the other dogs went on as though nothing had happened. Where Barney spent two months searching everywhere for Susie, nobody even sniffed around for Rufus. He might have been my favorite but I guess he wasn't theirs!

Our dog Bowie developed a very aggressive cancer and was in pain, so we had to make the hard decision to euthanize. When we choice the day we decided to put our younger dog, Pumpkin, in day camp so we could spend the day with Bowie. Later that day when we picked up Pumpkin from camp, it was reported that Pumpkin, who is usually a social butterfly, was very down and kept to herself and didn't eat her dinner. When we brought her home she went to Bowie's favorite spot in the house and laid down and appeared to be weeping. Over the next week Bowie would not leave her bed, we not eat and would barely drink water, we had to take her to the vet to get fluids put in her.

We weren't really sure how Bowie's passing would affect Pumpkin, they were together for about 8 months, during this time Bowie rarely acknowledged Pumpkin's presence. I guess even though Bowie didn't really care for Pumpkin, Pumpkin cared deeply for her.

Luckily about a month later Pumpkin started to act back to normal. We read online that sometimes dogs will refuse their food that they were eating at the time of their companions passing because they can associate the two, so we changed her dog food and she started eating again. We also thought that Pumpkin might enjoy having another companion, so we got another dog, thankfully this completely turned Pumpkin around, we had never seen her happier, she absolutely adores Clove, they are best friends and never leave one another's side.

Our older dog also had to put to sleep, it was a very sad day, but we also knew that it was time. Over time we got over the loss of MeeFee, but recently we realize that we missed having having a little bundle of joy to greet us. That's where Buddy the Rescue dog came into our lives. I have been writing about him on my blog http://joyfulanimalrescue.com check it out and enjoy life from his perspective.

When we lost our Doobie in 2009, it took almost a year before we could say his name without his two sisters getting up and looking for him.

I tried earlier to reply to westcoastsyrinx's reply to me, but it does not seem to have gone through. My point is that to experience loss there must be something that has been lost. Cats react emotionally to loss, as well as dogs. I have reacted emotionally to loss, of people, animals, etc. I have experienced other sorts of loss. The loss of a car or an old computer or a favorite restaurant that closed, is not an emotional experience for me, although it is a kind of loss. What about the the loss of money in a bad investment?

If animals react emotionally to loss, I think there must have been an emotional bond to begin with. I have no doubt that animals have feelings. As far as the ability to step back, observe one's feelings, intellectualize about them, that is a human characteristic, perhaps dependent on language and verbalization. Nevertheless they do have feelings and manifest them. I notice this in my everyday interactions with my cat. There seems to be a continuum.

My parents, now deceased, had two very elderly (20+) siamese cats. One died on their bed during the night, just of natural causes and in no particular distress. The other cat refused to stay on the bed for months. It was as though she thought of the bed as a place of
death.

These beautiful and intelligent animals have a great deal of intelligence. It all brings back memories of my mother, a teacher, saying repeatedly that if I could not put it into words I didn't know anything.
These animals obviously have much nonverbal knowledge. I continue to feel that sharing our lives with these other species expands our awareness.

My favorite aunt and uncle had 2 dogs, no kids. When Willie the Black Lab died, Wolf laid down next to him, as he was dying. The 2 of them had spent 12 years together, and he just "knew" it was Willie's time. A few years later, Wolf laid down by my uncle, as my Uncle had a massive heart attack and died. Wolf was absolutely lost without my Uncle, "his person"

I agree that pets understand something about death. My young male cat Quixote became very attached to one of the fosters I had. Tragically, after stabilizing and doing well here (he came in an untreated diabetic with super Hi BGs, but he was able to go off insulin and become diet controlled with proper diet and a few weeks of insulin) this foster cat went downhill precipitously and suddenly after the onset of neurological signs. After his euthanasia, my cat Quixote continued to look for him for weeks. He was very sad. Very confused and morose.

Can you imagine, then, if they understand death, the horror of this Texas shelter where they have been killing puppies in front of mothers and mothers in front of puppies?

http://www.examiner.com/article/monsters-walk-among-us-and-are-paid-with-our-tax-dollars

I tried to respond earlier to Stefanio's post, but the computer stalled. The link was sickening and infuriating, suggesting stories of war crimes, the Holocaust, Rwanda, Sudan, the Armenian genocide, etc. We cannot ignore this kind of sadism, whether against humans or these sentient animals. Part of me would like to respond to the perpetrators in kind, but humanitarian concerns say no. I am currently dealing with a cat who is terminally ill. I shall cheerfully do all that is necessary for his care, as each day is a gift, as long as he is able to live without undue suffering. Reading about these perpetrators of pain upon animals suggests to me that I would rather bop them on the head and leave them in the street. I am not fond of this in myself, but that is just how it is. I am not quite sure how to resolve this. I guess it will take time.