A 36-year-old woman from Amroha district in Uttar Pradesh tragically took her own life after the death of her beloved cat, whom she had kept near her for three days, hoping it would come back to life, her family reported on Monday.
The woman allegedly hanged herself in Mohalla Kot Hasanpur on Saturday night. According to police, she had been mentally unwell and had received treatment for her condition in Moradabad.
The woman’s mother described the heartbreaking incident, stating, “My daughter simply loved Titu (the cat). On Wednesday night, around 10 pm, Titu’s tongue turned blackish and, after about 45 minutes, it passed away.”
She also noted that her daughter had never expressed any intentions of ending her life. The grieving family shared that they had decided not to keep any more cats as pets after this tragedy.
The woman had adopted Titu nearly two years ago and treated the cat “like her own child.” When Titu died, she fell into deep grief. “She believed her cat would come back to life. I told her that three days had passed, and it was time to bury the body, but she remained silent and calm,” her mother added.
A neighbor of the woman recalled seeing Titu mostly staying with her, and mentioned that the woman had been married around eight to nine years ago. The marriage ended within a few days, which may have contributed to a sense of emptiness in her life, the neighbor suggested.
Following the woman’s death, the police helped bury the cat’s body.
Pradeep Khatri, a clinical psychologist from Lucknow, explained that for individuals like the deceased, who lived in isolation, pets often serve as a crucial support system. “She was probably suffering from a psychotic illness, a mental disorder involving a loss of touch with reality. People with psychotic disorders struggle to differentiate between reality and their perceptions,” Khatri explained. “When her pet cat died, she could not handle the resulting emptiness, which likely led to her tragic suicide.”
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