Pet Character Change

When you have to say a tearful goodbye to one pet do you think your remaining pet takes on some of the departed’s personality?

We were blessed with three very loving pets, 2 cats named Star and Muffin, and one big old dog named Tikki. A few years back our kids returned home to find Star motionless in her favorite chair. A complete shock to us all and I believe to our remaining pets as well. Muffin and Star were always chasing each other around the house and seemed to work hard to make the other mad by getting to the best resting places first. After Star’s passing Muffin took on some of her daily habits like sleeping in the clothes basket even when Muffin was always jumpy around clothes on the floor. This was probably due to Star jumping out from them to scare him. Star was the cat that would jump up on your lap while you were watching television while Muffin was the cat that ignored you until he got hungry. Now Muffin has taken to jumping up next to us and even better allowing us to pet him.

After 17 years together our family recently had to say goodbye to Tikki. Tikki and Muffin always seemed to tolerate each other but not much more. Tikki would never do anything to harm Muffin and often tried to get him to play. Muffin would have nothing to do with the dog if he could avoid it. It was always funny to watch Muffin run to Tikki’s bed and stretch out knowing that Tikki would not try to get him to move. Many times we would come into the kitchen and find this cat all stretched out on the dog bed and this big old dog sleeping next to him on the floor.

Now that Tikki is gone Muffin seems to have taken on a dog’s mentality that is out of character for him. He follows people around, lays under the chair we’re sitting in, wants his water in the same spot where we kept Tikki’s water bowl, and will actually flop down in the middle of the floor to get his belly rubbed. All the same things Tikki used to do around our home. So we still have their memories in our hearts and their mannerisms in our cat, Muffin.

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