• • dizziness
• • insomnia or disturbed sleep

Emotional signs

• • sadness, depression
• • anger, irritability
• • anxiety
• • relief
• • loneliness
• • helplessness

Intellectual signs

• • confusion
• • inability to concentrate
• • visual and auditory hallucinations (e.g., cat crying)
• • need to talk about and rationalize the loss
• • preoccupation with death and the afterlife

Social signs

• • withdrawal from contact with others
• • rejection of help from others

There is no structure or set pattern to the journey through grief; from a personal perspective I can honestly say I have experienced all these signs to one degree or another when I have lost a cat. Some people move backwards and forwards through various stages, or get stuck in the angry stage, for example, for an impossible length of time.

Whatever happens, the advice is to accept that grief is inevitable and to succumb to it. Problems can occur when you don't allow these feelings to express themselves fully. Eventually the sadness and the tears do go away as they are replaced with