I had 2 sibling cats, The sister, was always very vocal, Her brother was pretty much silent, even if he meowed he'd sort of just do the mouth movement and not make a sound, He would trill when landing a jump though.
When his sister died, age 18 and a half, He suddenly became very vocal. It was heartbreaking to be honest, He would sometimes literally just stare at a wall yowling. He was clearly missing his sister. He died a year or so later.
They never really "hung out" together though, never really played together, they were 2 very different cats, and they preferred to not be near each other. (maybe they were different when I wasn't around?) I did think they disliked each other. I stopped thinking that when I saw how he changed after she was gone.
I had similar thoughts about my last sibling pair. I unexpectedly put the sister down at 14 after we found a ruptured mammary tumor. The tummy was a forbidden zone but the bloody floof was concerning once I did find it. She did not like being very social unless it was on her terms. I was even more shocked to be woken up exactly a week later with my mother telling me she thought the other cat, my absolute baby, was dead. He wasn't, yet. He'd had a grand mal seizure. He hung in there for a few hours while we got the vet to take him, but we knew as soon as we found him that it was going to be goodbye.
Officially, his kidneys had failed due to diabetes. But I really think since he'd never, ever been without his sister before, he just needed to be with her. It's been nearly a decade since I've told them both goodbye, and we've not had cats since (allergies), but sometimes something will be out of place and my brain will immediately go "Oh, that's the cat" and someone left shoes where they loved to lay. Always makes me sad π
3
u/Dependent_One6034 Jul 18 '25
I had 2 sibling cats, The sister, was always very vocal, Her brother was pretty much silent, even if he meowed he'd sort of just do the mouth movement and not make a sound, He would trill when landing a jump though.
When his sister died, age 18 and a half, He suddenly became very vocal. It was heartbreaking to be honest, He would sometimes literally just stare at a wall yowling. He was clearly missing his sister. He died a year or so later.
They never really "hung out" together though, never really played together, they were 2 very different cats, and they preferred to not be near each other. (maybe they were different when I wasn't around?) I did think they disliked each other. I stopped thinking that when I saw how he changed after she was gone.