My sister's little rat terrier died yesterday. For about 10 years he'd been a big brother to a jack rat terrier and the two were inseparable. For a while we've been wondering how the death would affect him, do you think when one animal dies, and is taken away and doesn't come back, that the others are aware of what's happened, or do they look for the other one to come back?

Sorry to hear about the loss of the doggie. I know you spent a lot of time with your sister's dogs.

I do think when one dog dies and he was close to another dog, the survivor dog goes through a grieving process. When they are both elderly dogs, I think the survivor doesn't have a lot of years left. When the survivor dog is younger, they do fine after mourning the loss.

Thanks, Red, it's been hard on all of us but I know it's the worst for my sister. She called today and said they hadn't taken him to the vet to be cremated yet because once they take him, then he'll be gone. I can't imagine.

Sorry about the Dog SN, the other dog will probably be sad but will eventually recover.

Sorry for your loss . I don't know why a dog wouldn't mourn another dog. They mourn for people.

sorry... as Red said, they go thru a greiving process. they do it with ppl too.

my dad spoke german to the german sheppard (go figure). when my dad died, the dog was 4yrs old and didnt understand one english word that anyone said. the dog died 6mos later

Supernova wrote:

Thanks, Red, it's been hard on all of us but I know it's the worst for my sister. She called today and said they hadn't taken him to the vet to be cremated yet because once they take him, then he'll be gone. I can't imagine.

Oh, Dear. I feel for your sister too. I can only imagine what they are feeling as they wait to take him in to be cremated. At least they are doing that so they can keep "him" forever. When my parents' dog passed when I was a kid, they kept her in the freezer (yuck, I know) until they could take her to Wisconsin to be burried on the family land.

These little pooches warm their way into our hearts and are our little family members.

A vet I used to take my cat to said that he believed animals mourn. When one of my cats died, he told me to expect the other one to grieve. They had been together for eighteen years. The remaining cat did go through a sort of grieving period. He stumbled around the house searching for his friend calling and crying out for her.

It was especially sad because he had gone blind in his later years ( that's why the stumbling around) and she had watched over him functioning as his seeing eye kitty making sure he didn't bump into things steering him away from objects and keeping him safe.

Animals may not understand death but they know their friends are gone and they go through a grieving process because they miss them. They do expect them to come back for awhile. But they definitely feel a loss.

Sorry to hear that SN.