Losing a pet is like losing a member of your family. When it happens, everyone in the family feels it. But what about other pets?

In the cheekily titled paper “Is companion animal loss cat-astrophic? Responses of domestic cats to the loss of another companion animal,” scientists Brittany Greene and Jennifer Vonk of Oakland University in Michigan suggest that not only do cats feel the loss of another pet in the household; they demonstrate those feelings. The paper appears in the latest issue of Applied Animal Behaviour Science.

To test the hypothesis, the researchers recruited 412 cat caregivers (and 452 cats) to report on their feelings and the perceived feelings of the felines following the death of another companion animal in the household.

While admitting the study is less scientific than one might prefer — they caution against “anthropomorphism in the projection of caregiver grief onto surviving companion animals” — the researchers were able to report that cat caregivers saw a decrease in their cats sleeping, eating and playing following the death of another pet.

They also noticed higher levels of attention-seeking behaviour, particularly among cats with a higher level of attachment to their owners, and also those who had lived longer with the deceased animal.

What’s more, the species of the deceased animal didn’t seem to matter.