Need some advice on possibly adopting a companion for our cat, Miles. His brother died on Friday.

I know this is a long-winded post, but I am having trouble dealing with the death of our two cats within a short time span. We also need some advice on adoption. Skip straight to the bottom if you want to avoid the depressing pet loss story.

By way of background, we lost our cat Frank in April as a result of a urinary tract blockage. We had brought him to the vet on a Friday morning after we observed he was having difficulty urinating. After catheterizing him over the weekend proved to be minimally successful, the vet strongly recommended performing a perineal urethostomy on Monday morning. Unfortunately, complications arose later that day due to the weakened state of Frank’s urethra, requiring a second emergency surgery during which he almost died. In the ensuing week, we visited him at the animal hospital every afternoon for an hour or so. Initially, he was barely clinging to life but as the week progressed he became more alert and responsive. The vet set up a pen for him in the corner of one of the surgery rooms so he would have a calm quiet place to rest. Though he still wasn’t eating (eventually requiring a feeding tube to be inserted) and could hardly move, he recognized us and would purr faintly when we spent time petting him. All the vets and vet techs at the animal hospital got to know Frank because he was truly a character and several took a special interest in looking after him.

That Friday evening, our vet brought him home with her so she could care for him personally over the weekend. I think she knew that his chance of survival wasn’t good, but wanted to do everything she could to help him and us. She invited us to come to her home to sit with him, which we did on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, Frank was due to have the catheter removed. When the vet did so, she saw that the tissue around the surgery area was dying and brought him to a surgeon friend to see if there was anything that could be salvaged. Unfortunately, the surgeon determined that his urethra was beyond repair and told us there was nothing more they could do for him, as the tissue in his urethra would continue to die off. In a heart-wrenching conclusion to the week, we held him as she put him to sleep. Frank would’ve been 10 years old on August 27.

A month had passed since Frank died when we found ourselves at Petsmart, where the local humane society was holding an adoption event. Although we had discussed adopting another cat we weren’t sure we were ready to take that leap yet. We still felt devastated by Frank’s death. However, when we saw Max and Miles (Max is black, Miles is the tabby) in their cage we knew we had found our next cats. They were 6 year old brothers who had been in foster care for nearly 2 years. They were large cats, and older, and because they had to be adopted as a bonded pair there had been little interest in them. We filled out the requisite paperwork, provided references, had an interview and brought them home the following weekend. This was in late May. Over the past few months, we’ve gotten to know them and their personalities. Miles was the very outgoing and confident brother while Max was more shy but also more affectionate. Whenever Miles saw a lap, he had to jump up in it to test it out. Max had started waiting for me to get in bed at night so he could snuggle for a while.

On Friday morning, we noticed that Max seemed to be having trouble walking. I immediately called the vet and they were able to see him shortly, which was a stroke of luck. By the time we got him to the animal hospital, his back legs and tail had gone entirely limp. As soon as we got him out of his carrier in the exam room, I could see the look of concern on the vet’s face. She seemed very worried. They brought him into the back to do blood work, x-rays and run some tests and I returned home to await the results. They discovered that Max had an extremely enlarged heart, which is typically caught because there will be a murmur or irregular heartbeat but he had neither. As a result of the enlarged heart, they determined he’d had an embolism (a related symptom) which cut off the blood flow to the rear part of his body. The vet was tearing up as she told us the news, as she knew what we had recently been through with Frank. Max had virtually no chance of recovery; barely four months after losing Frank, we found ourselves in the same heartbreaking situation. We are, of course, very sad and somewhat in shock that we would have two pets die within such a short time span. We are also concerned for Miles. He has never been apart from his brother and since Friday evening he’s been rather restless. He’s been extra headbutt-y and has been rubbing against us and everything around him – similar to when we first brought him home and he was getting accustomed to his new surroundings. We’re sure he is confused and uneasy because Max is nowhere to be found. How can we help him feel comfortable? And secondly, should we adopt another cat to be a companion for Miles? If yes, how soon should we do this? Due to the timing of these events and some pre-planned trips over the next couple weekends, we probably can’t realistically bring home another cat until mid-September. Would adopting a new companion be too stressful on Miles so soon?

TL;DR Our cat Max died on Friday. Our other cat, Miles, has never been apart from his brother and has been restless since then. Should we adopt a new companion for him? If yes, any advice on how we should go about doing so (i.e., timing, introductions, etc.)?