Life stages (pet)

Like Sims, pets age in stages.

A pet starts as a kitten or puppy and ages to an adult. In The Sims 2, an adult pet will eventually age to an elder, and will eventually die. However, in The Sims: Unleashed and The Sims 2 Pets for console, adult pets live indefinitely.

In The Sims 2, kittens and puppies cannot have jobs or learn commands but they can learn behaviors. They cannot climb stairs, and must be carried up and down them. In The Sims: Unleashed, kittens and puppies are objects, and appear as maternity tents topped by a cat face or dog face. The mother will watch them, but it is not possible to interact with them.

Elder pets can retire from their career.

Death
Pets will eventually die of old age, that being the only way they can die, as a police(wo)man will take the pet away before starvation.

When a pet dies, the Grim Reaper will come to take the animal away. Other dogs on the lot will surround the Grim Reaper in a circle and howl. Cats arch their backs and hiss.

Pet deaths have their own unique cinemas. A dog's death will result in the Grim Reaper throwing a stick and the dog fetching, while a cat is thrown a ball of yarn.

Pets have their own gravestones and a special memory is also added when a pet dies.