Following the advice from our vet, we started the bonding process with Peanut & our dear boy Pancake (neutered).
We had achieved a lovely mutual grooming stage by day 4, reaching 8 days of bonding before Peanut sadly died.
We were careful to keep bonding sessions limited to 1 hour per day as we knew we would then need to allow Peanut time to heal from her spay. As you all know, she sadly did not make it.
Before her death, we were able to take Peanut home as she had made some improvements (see our previous posts). We thought it would be good for both Pancake & Peanut to have some contact in the hopes of 1) giving her a little boost & 2) allowing Pancake to understand what was going on.
Our worry now is how we support Pancake through this. We believe he was aware of how sick she was as he was so gentle with her. We have no doubt with how intuitive he is.
So far, Pancake has been acting normal. His poops did initially reduce in size. He is eating, pooping & behaving normally. His poops have returned to normal.
We have spent lots of time with him today, though we do appreciate we cannot replace our dear Peanut. He has had the zoomies, binkied, played chases & generally seems okay. Our worry is that the longer time goes on without Peanut, he will feel this.
We know that we will eventually look into finding Pancake another friend, but we feel that we need to process & heal before rescuing a bun that needs a forever home.
We realise this is a little bit different to a completely bonded pair, but we would appreciate any advice or otherwise to help us support our little boy in case he does feel Peanut’s absence in a big way.
Thank you.
by lifewithpancake