do cats grieve, and how?

Question
My "inherited" cat, just delivered, 1st was stillborn, and 4 very healthy cuties-she was an outside cat that I was feeding, because my neighbor quit; anyway, she adopted me as her feeder, because I fed her-outside, and when she became pregnant, and I sensed she was close to delivery, she came inside and started staying longer, and behaving lovingly with me, which was new from her, I suspected she was in early labor, I could tell when she contracted etc.., and made her feel loved and etc..  I made a place in a closet for her-and that night she had one stillborn, she licked and all, she tried so hard to stimulate the baby, but it was dead...she left it after about 30 minutes or so... I waited a few minutes, to see what she would do, and I used the sheet to try to check for any movement in the kitten-none.  I wrapped the kitten in the same sheet and moved it out of the closet..Mama, (Missy), delivered the rest of the 4 kittens under my bed, after about an hour of her being up on my bed with me, letting me rub her belly and talk to her...she started contracting, and ran under the bed.....now 2 days later, I believe she has been searching, or grieving over her stillborn......she cries, and roams around, and rubs on me, like she is lost...she is eating, drinking etc.. and very protective over the babies....but she seems lost--is she grieving her lost baby?  I think she is.


Answer
Cheryl,

Congratulations on your new 'grand-kitties', and I'm sorry about the one you lost.

Yes, cats can grieve. I am including a link to a very good article about it. Type or copy and paste the whole link into your address bar:

http://www.messybeast.com/cat-grief.htm

Watch her for any physical signs that she have something medically wrong resulting from the stillborn. And remember they can go into heat again as soon as 7-14 days after giving birth so you may want to think about getting her spayed as soon as she is through nursing.

Missy may also be hungry. A mama cat eats about 4 times the their normal amount when they are nursing. Feed her a good quality kitten chow until the nursing is over to have a well fed mother that produces a lot of milk.

Tabbi

Tabbi