When a cat dies, does her sister grieve?

Q. We had two Siamese cats together for the last 10 years, and we just lost one to cancer. Her sister is very mopey and seems depressed. I say that she is grieving, but my husband says that she just misses her daily routine. We had to have her sister euthanized at the vet. I thought about taking her back home for our surviving cat to look at and sniff, but I was too upset at the time and left her to be cremated. However, I would still like to know if our surviving cat is grieving or just confused and what we can do to help the situation?

Maureen Sanders, Hauppauge

A. Animals certainly do grieve, but not quite the way that we do, as they are free of the worries of the future and the regrets of the past. The level of anxiety that a pet experiences when people or other animals that they are close to die, or simply move away, varies with the individual animal's personality. As a general rule, wild animals do not grieve, as they are so busy with their very survival that they cannot afford the time to do so. This is what we should keep in mind with our domesticated pets. The busier that you can keep your pet after a loss like this the better. Do your best not to show too much emotion over the loss around your pet, as they can pick this up and it will add to the overall anxiety. In my house, as soon as we lose a pet I always replace it immediately with one or two more, as this keeps both us humans and our animals so busy that we do not have time to keep thinking about our loss. Most of our pets have been cremated, and we have little urns all over the house. Every now and then I will see our oldest cat sitting on the counter sniffing at one of the urns that holds the remains of his brother. He does not sniff at any of the other cats' remains, so there probably is more to animal grieving than meets the eye.

Q. I am a vegetarian and it bothers me every time I open up a can of dog food or cat food for my pets. I am sure that the animals that were killed to make the commercial food were factory farmed and suffered a horrible life. I hate to knowingly contribute to this cycle of cruelty. Some of my friends feed their dogs a vegetarian diet, and I was wondering if you thought that it is a practical thing to do?

Sandy Fogle, Valley Stream

A. The ancestor of the dog - the wolf - is an obligate carnivore and cannot digest anything other than animal tissue. Even though the dog has the same teeth and digestive system of a wolf, we have altered the way their stomachs work through generations of domestication. A dog can digest vegetable fats and proteins and can survive just fine on a carefully planned and balanced vegetarian diet. But think carefully before transferring your own beliefs onto the lifestyle of another species that depends on you for its care and well-being. Even though your dog can live on a vegetarian diet, your cat cannot. They are obligate carnivores that cannot survive without meat in their diet. Without the element called taurine, which is only present in animal tissue, they will have all sorts of medical problems.

Q. We want to keep hens in our large backyard and wondered how many we should get in order to have enough eggs for our family of six. It is legal for us to keep hens here, and my husband will build a coop in our yard.

Lenore Jacobs, Huntington

A. I like chickens very much. They are individuals and have personalities on a par with most parrots. I find their social structure fascinating. As a general rule, a hen of an egg-laying breed fed a very good diet will lay around five to six eggs a week when she is in her physical prime and not molting. We have two Rhode Island Reds in our yard, and we sometimes get 14 eggs a week from them. In your case, a conservative answer would be five hens, as you should get at least 25 eggs a week if they are well maintained and of a breed that is known for egg laying.