A cat's seemingly heartbroken reaction to her first breakfast time without her best friend has gone viral, sparking sympathetic reactions from many viewers.
In a video posted by Sarra Cicero from Canada on TikTok, Willow is seen standing waiting for her breakfast the morning after losing her sister, Lucky.
Perched in front of the refrigerator, the cat seems to be looking for her companion. In the caption her owner wrote: "My heart is so broken."
Lucky had been part of the family since 2008, when she came to them as a stray kitten already a few months pregnant. She was 16 years old when she died earlier this month. "Willow didn't know Lucky her whole life, only 5 years, but they became friends," Cicero told Newsweek.
The whole family have been coming to terms with the loss of Lucky, Willow included. "She definitely has been sad and confused as to where her friend went, but she's OK," Cicero said.
In thousands of comments, people rushed to share their sympathies with the owner and cat and their own experiences of pet loss.
"Her looking to see if sister was coming. Poor baby darling," said Jenna.
While one TikTok user wrote: "I wish they lived forever. Not even for me but for each other."
Other viewers shared their own experiences of pet loss. "We lost our cat he was only 3 and got a kidney infection that wouldn't go away. His baby and my cat he had the baby with still look for him a year later," Ashley posted.
While TikToker Sanne wrote: "When one of my cats died, I was sitting in the garden next to him. My other cat, his best friend, was sitting on my lap crying as well."
In 1996, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) conducted a study called the Companion Animal Mourning project that asked owners about their pets' behavior after losing a companion.
The results found that 50 percent of animals who had lost a companion demonstrated at least four behavioral changes after losing the friend, including eating less, sleep disruption, sluggishness, increased vocalization and avoiding play.
The good news is that these changes generally lasted less than six months.
While owners perceived these changes as grief, researchers said that more study was needed to figure out if these behaviors really stem from loss, or come from alterations in owner behavior due to their own grief.
Another possibility is that the pet simply changes its behavior because it no longer needs to follow instincts associated with interacting. Or it had came to associate the presence of the other pet with certain activities which it then refrains from when the lost pet is no longer present.
"I shared the video of Willow spur of the moment, not expecting it to go viral or be so relatable to so many people," Cicero said. "I feel so grateful to have the TikTok community, reading the comments has brought me to tears because of the kind words. It truly is healing seeing so many people relate to your pain and normalize it."
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Update 04/26/2024 at 6:20 a.m. ET: This story was updated with the video of Willow and comment from Sarra Cicero.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years ... Read more
