Monday, July 5, 2010

Grief

I expected to be devastated by letting Mahone go; however I was totally taken aback by Bob and Marley's grief. Bob has been cuddly and refused to be more than 4 feet away from me at any time; normally he is very aloof and while very curious he does not feel the need to interact with me regularly. He has also become very vocal, meowing and chirping as he follows me around.

Marley seemed to realize Mahone was missing at dinner time. She was looking around for Mahone when I called her to dinner. She ran into her crate and stared at Mahone's food bowl spot. She lightly whined and refused her dinner and breakfast. On our walk she didn't spend much time sniffing and she kept a close eye on me. I tried to entice her to play and she refused, she just looked away and sighed.

This is my favorite picture of my two troublemakers.
They spent a great deal of time sleeping together and following each other around.



It seems very easy to find books that refer to human grief at the loss of a pet; however, I have not found anything that addresses the grief other pets feel at the loss of a friend. I've totally been taken aback by the level of distress they seem to be feeling. I'm sure many people will say they are reacting to my grief; however, I think they actually notice Mahone is missing and they are grieving. I'm not sure what I can do to make them feel better.

2 comments:

people and pets said...

There is quite a lot you can do help your pets with their grieve. See my article in http://www.petsandpeople.com.au/?p=247 Helping cats cope with the loss of other pets.

I hope this helps

bc_lover said...

I'm assuming one of Mahone's jobs was also being the "pack leader." Bob and Marley may be adjusting to the loss of their pack leader, sudden change in the social order of their household. Animals are resilient. They do not look back or look forward. They live in the moment. In a few days, Bob and Marley will figure things out; Mahone's spirit may be reborn as another animal in our wild kingdom. :)