Cats also experience grief after the death of one of their four-legged friends, even if it’s a dog: in the months following the loss, they become more fearful and demanding of attention, spending more time in places preferred by their deceased companion. . This is proven by the testimony of more than 400 cat owners, collected in a study published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science by researchers from Oakland University in the United States.
“Our findings are consistent with the idea that cats may experience the loss of animal friends in a similar way to dogs, despite having evolved from a less social ancestor,” write psychologists Brittany Greene and Jennifer Vonk of the University of Oakland.
What refutes the reputation of cats as asocial and indifferent animals are the experiences of 412 people who had a second cat or a recently deceased dog at home in addition to a cat.
In the months following the disappearance of their four-legged “companion”, the cats showed less desire to eat, sleep and play. At the same time, they increased their vocalizations to attract attention and spent more time searching for the missing animal by sniffing the places it usually visited.
This behavior began immediately and was more persistent in those cats that had lost a longtime companion, as if “they were capable of a similar pain response,” Greene and Vonk write. “Cats did not react significantly differently to the loss of a dog or another cat,” the researchers point out. This means that their behavior indicates the loss of a friend, even if they belong to a different species.