Woman lives with dead pet cat for 3 days, then kills self

A 36-year-old woman, who committed suicide after the death of her cat in Amroha district, had refused to bury the animal's body and kept it close to her for three days hoping it would return to life, her family said on Monday.

Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo

The grief-stricken family has now decided that they will not keep any cat as pet.

"My daughter Pooja simply loved Titu (cat). On Wednesday night at around 10 pm, Titu's tongue turned blackish and after about 45 minutes, it died," Pooja's mother Gajra Devi told PTI.

When asked whether Pooja had dropped any hints of ending her own life, she said, "Pooja did not say anything as such."

Pooja allegedly hanged herself in Mohalla Kot Hasanpur here on Saturday night.

Police on Sunday said she was mentally disturbed and had undergone treatment for the condition in Moradabad.

According to the family members, Pooja adopted the cat nearly two years ago and raised it "like her own child". When the pet died, she became grief-stricken, they said.

"Pooja had a belief that her cat will come back to life. I told her that almost three days have passed, and now it's time to bury the body, but she did not give any reply. She remained quiet and calm," Gajra Devi said.

When contacted, Mayank Agarwal, a neighbour of Gajra Devi, said, "I had seen the cat staying mostly with her (Pooja)."

Agarwal also said that Pooja had got married around eight-nine years ago, but the marriage barely lasted for a few days. "Possibly due to this, an emptiness may have entered her life."

He also said that Pooja was not willing to get her cat buried, and used to say that the cat will become alive.

"It was after her death that the cat was buried in the presence of police," Agarwal said.

Pradeep Khatri, a Lucknow-based clinical psychologist, said that for people like Pooja who live in isolation, pets are the support system for them.

"Pooja was probably suffering from psychotic illness, which is a mental illness that involves a loss of contact with reality. People with psychotic disorders may have difficulty distinguishing between reality and their perceptions," Khatri told PTI.

"People with psychotic illness do not want anybody to enter their world... When her pet cat died, Pooja could not bear that emptiness, due to which she committed suicide," he said.