This is not news. At one time I had 2 dogs — a Schnauzer near the end of his life and a Golden Retriever puppy. They had a bow tie shaped rubber toy that they used to play tug with. The pup would pick up that rubber toy and whack the older (sleeping) dog with it until he grabbed the other end and they would run all over the place playing tug o’ war.
The pup was used to seeing the older Schnauzer go away in the car to the groomer and never batted an eyelash. However, on the morning when my husband had to take the older dog to the vet to be put down, it was different. My husband put the dog in the car and the pup chased through the house to the front window to watch them leave. When my husband came home with just the collar and tags, the pup jumped at them and let out a mournful whimper.
And she would never again play with that rubber tug toy. EVER. Even 10 years later, she would just turn away when the toy was offered.
I’m not sure about that. I remember I was a kid we had this cat named Bigfoot die. We thought it was only fair that his mother knew the horrible thing that happened to her son.
So we brought Meow Meow to the corpse of her deceased only son. She sniffed it and then went along her merry way.
I swear, she did NOT care at all!
We were fortunate to have two beautiful Snowshoe Siamese. Demi and Handsome Boy. Demi was Handsome Boy’s mom. When Demi passed Handsome was looking for her and tried to initiate running games they used to play. When Handsome gave up looking for his mom, he gave out the most horrific guttural scream. The kind that make the hairs on the back of your neck rise. He eventually calmed down after some TLC. Very sad to watch.
We actually had (till last month) three dogs. Jojo, the oldest, was a chihuahua-dachshund mix. Bella, a year older, is a shepherd-chow mix. These two were our kids' pets and developed a lively play-relationship over the years. About 18 months ago, we "inherited" a Cavalier King Charles spaniel from one of my adult children whose living venue made owning a dog difficult. Hannah was barely tolerated by the much older pair.
We put Jojo down last month at the ripe old age of 16+. Since then, Bella has shown what's described in this article -- diminished intake of food, disinterest in treats, pronounced lethargy -- sleeps almost all the time now, greatly diminished interaction with me and my wife. She often looks at me, eyes sad, ears laid back, as if I'd just scolded her (which I have never done!).
Once in a while she shows some friendly behavior toward the previously rejected Hannah, but Hannah never responds in kind (I guess she holds a grudge?).
How do they know? Did they do some polling?
We can make educated guesses but do we really know what our pets are thinking or have we Disneyfied them and transfer our emotions to them?
Many pets notice OUR emotions and respond to them. They are empathetic when they see us sad or despondent. But I wouldn't be so bold as to state an animal's emotions declaritively. For all we know, they're just sad to lose a playmate or somebody that feeds them.
Wife’s horse had a heart attack while we were riding in the mountains last night. Pretty awful to watch. Wonderful beautiful horse did his best not to hurt my wife when he went down thrashing in the brush & trees. Wife & I & my horse & the dog are all not doing to well today.
Who’s he to say it isn’t as deep?
Fishbreath the cat died a couple of weeks ago, Murphy and Miller the black labs are delighted.
We have a German Shepard random terrior and who knows what else mixed dog...his name is Baxter. He is used to the comings &goings of our large family. He never acts “odd” even when the college aged kids/leave come back or when my husband used to travel for work. It’s like he knew “they’ll be back.” Except, three years ago my husband had a massive heart attack (a 100% blockage of his LAD). Our two youngest (teens) thought we were both at work (the HA occurred during their summer break) both texted me telling me something was weird w/Baxter. He wouldn’t stop whimpering.
Later they day after PaDad was stabilized & I went home to tell the boys (and call our older kids) did i see what they texted me. Baxter (all 75 lbs of him) curled up under the kitchen chair PD sits at. He was making this weird low whimpering sound. After our daughter came home (to look after the 2 younger ones) I went back to the hospital. PaDad was on a ht pump for the following 48 hrs. Baxter got out from under the chair and somehow found a baseball caps of my husbands and then went back under the chair with his head on the cap.
He stayed in that place (only getting water). His behavior was adding to the nervousness at home. When it was time for the pump to come out I told my daughter I would call as soon as I talked to the doctor. Well before I could call, Baxter stopped the whimpering got up, the kids say he shook, and went to his food dish.
He “knew” before I could even call home that his best buddy was going to be okay.
My sister’s little dog has had to endure quite a bit of grief in a short time.
First, the family had to put down her German Shepherd. My sister said little 2yo Sparkles was confused by the disappearance of her big mentor.
Then a month later, her master, my sister, died. Sparkles was lost and confused, sad. She would stay on her bed and not eat. Finally Sparkles starting transferring to my nephew, who is a mama’s boy living in the house. She is very attached to him now. Interesting how she isn’t nearly as attached to the others, which shows just who best associated with my sister.
The few times we come over, I notice Sparkles is much more excited about any of us visiting, and especially me and our mom, than she was in the past.
My mother got a brown tabby Persian male in exchange for a breeding to another of her cats (she raised Persians). My father fell in love with that kitten, and it became his. (My mother swore that its feet never touched the ground as my father carried it everywhere.) My father ended up dying of heart failure rather suddenly. A few days after his death, my mother was sitting on their bed & the kitten jumped up & sat with her (his name was Rebel). After that moment, he never got on the bed again.
He was affectionate with everyone in the family. Just odd that he seemed to consider that place ‘sacred ground’.
I took a very old GSD to help a friend of mine that had to go to a nursing home. My friend had the dog since puppyhood and they were very attached to each other.
Even though I gave her lots of attention...I was beginning to worry that she would grieve herself to death. Wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t move off of a blanket I had brought from her “home”.
It took every bit of 5 months before her appetite returned in full. The first time she sought me out and wagged her tail, I considered it a major event. She was never really happy here, but she “put up” with things until she died a few years later.