Caturday: Happy Cat Is Sad

 


Happy Cat was so named because of his cheerful, laid-back, cool, and chill nature. An outdoor who always kept his distance, he approached us for help when he came down with a lung disease and was close to death. At the time, he was somewhere between two and four years of age. That was 2012. He has been with us since, joining our cat family of four at the time, and welcoming new cats into the fold as the family grew to six in number.

Happy Cat was the beta cat, grooming and nurturing the other cats, especially the new ones. All the cats are indoor cats only; Happy Cat helped our rescued cats adjust to being inside and having a family.

First after Happy Cat came Snyezhka. He knew her from his street days, and he seemed so happy to show her around the house. He groomed ger several times a day, and they slept together. After Snyezhka came Bobolink, afraid to venture forth from his cubby on the cat tree in the cat room; one full day with Happy Cat took care of that. Happy Cat lured him out of the cubby and into the rest of the house. They ran, and jumped, and wrestled together. Best pals.

Then came Jack, who follows Happy Cat everywhere, and they sleep together at night. That relationship is not quite enough recently, though.

In the fall, Snyezhka died from a saddle thrombus; she also had four kinds of cancer. Every day after she died, Happy Cat would look for her, going to the front door through which we took her to the ER on that fateful evening, acting like he wanted to go search for her on the street where he had met her. Every single time the door opened, Happy Cat would rush over and look out. Until a couple of weeks ago when he seemed to perk up a bit and enjoy time with Bobolink and Jack.

Then last week, we lost Bobolink. Since then, Happy Cat has been sleeping a lot, not running around, not grooming Jack, and acting depressed. He eats a lot, so no worries there, but he is definitely not his old self. And he chooses to sleep in a basket, not a cat bed. We are hoping he will cheer up again. Two losses so close together depresses even his human owners.

To help him, we have been doing some research. We found an excellent article: What Happens to Bonded Cats When One Dies? 6 Ways to Help Your Cat - Farewell Pet Care. Looking at the three stages described in the article -- search, depression, and acceptance -- Happy Cat has clearly passed through stage 1 and is now living in stage 2. We are hopeful that he will move on to stage 3 soon -- for his sake and the sake of the other cats, who depend on him.

For more Caturday posts, click HERE.


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