It’s been not quite two months since I lost Raedthinn. This has left Speedbump, Buttons and Fingers 9not to mention me) without the “alpha cat.” Some observations:
1) Speedbump seems wholly unaffected. Not surprising; he’s the youngest of them and did not interact that much with Raedthinn.
2) Buttons has developed a new hobby… wandering around the house and calling out mournfully. It is a sound that certainly seems sad, but of course what’s sad to a human might be a song of joy to another species. But I do wonder sometimes if Buttons is perhaps calling out to Raedthinn, asking him to come back out and rejoin the family.
3) Fingers no longer purrs herself to sleep on Raedthinns favorite corner of the bed. What with time and laundering, I guess the corner no longer smells like Raedthinn. She has become distinctly more friendly with *me,* seeking physical contact far more than she used to… basically she almost *never* used to, reserving that sort of thing for Raedthinn. She interacts very minimally with the other two cats, basically unchanged. Mostly, she just sits by herself in a window. Distressingly, she has made a few attempts to dash out the door, something she hasn’t tried in years. This was something I was afraid of… Raedthin was her favorite thing about this house, and once he was no longer here I wondered if she would decide that she didn’t want to be here anymore. So far she hasn’t gotten to close to escape, but the urge is clearly there.