This week, a huge priority of mine and Alex’s has been on our cat Henry. After suddenly losing his brother last week we want to make sure that Henry is getting adequate attention, that he feels like we’re playing with him enough, and of course, that he knows we love him.
Being such a “cool cat” we are relieved that Henry seems to be doing really well with this adjustment. There are some moments that we can tell he senses Oliver and gets spooked out, but overall, it seems like Henry is doing okay, given the circumstances. He has been extra cuddly and it seems like he “checks in” with us more often. Alex did a little research on the cat mourning process for Henry and found that Henry may be looking for his brother for around 6 weeks, he might eat less and he might lose some hair, depending on how stressed he is. So far, Henry is eating completely normally and we haven’t noticed him losing any hair. He does seem to still be looking for his brother, though.
We had considered getting Henry a playmate since he and Oliver were such good pals; however, we have decided, at least for a while, that we’re not going to get another cat. Hopefully Henry and Jackson will become BFFs.
Shortly after we got Oliver and Henry as kittens we made the choice to allow them access to play outside. We made this choice because we felt that the quality of life would be far greater for them to have outdoor playtime than to be confined to our home. Certainly we knew the risks and potential consequences with this were greater, but to us, their quality of life was a very important consideration. For this reason, I have no regrets in letting Oliver outside and we are continuing to allow Henry to play outside. I have so much joy and so many memories thinking about how much more fun the boys had playing outside, exploring and making friends with the other neighborhood cats.