If you drop a friend, is other person notified?

Hello...awhile back, I tried to drop a friend, not for mean purposes, but just because we had played our game and hadn't talked as much, and I wasn't really concered about when he was on anymore -- I got a note back from him saying "hey, what gives?" and i wondered if he was notified when I dropped him.  If so, is there anyway to fix this, so it's a bit more anonymous?  Or, am I way off track here...?

erik, people on the friends list aren't notified if they are removed..

Knightnothorse, your friend probably just noticed you weren't on his "friends list" and assumed you had removed him from yours. I've added and dropped, and been .. and never been notified..  

That is good, but if I drop someone from my friend's list, am I automatically removed from theirs?  Maybe that is how they found out...?

EDIT: yes, this is how it works -- see the next post describing my experiment with Erik.... 

Yup, that is how it works, from my experiment with Erik -- here's the scoop: 

I sent him a request to be a friend, he accepted.  I then saw him on my friend's list.  He then dropped me, and when I refreshed my screen a few minutes later, he dropped from my list.  Therefore, because of his actions, and due to the fact that I did no actions, when he disappeared from my friend's list, I correctly assumed he dropped me.  Hope this makes sense.

Now, is there a way that when you drop someone as a friend, that you do not disappear from their friend list (and therefore eliminate inadvertently telling them that you dropped them)?

 nope :) that might be how friendships work in the real world, but not here ;)

It sounds like you need to just block them after you drop them...can you block them? anyway, that would stop the messages from them, it sounds like you are just wanting to avoid any type of confrontation with them.