Death of a Pet

We just put our cat down in Jan. and my 4yr old was very attatched to her. Being that your son is younger it may be easier to get through. I told him that Magic is in heaven playing with all the other dogs and cats and that my grandma and grandpa are taking care of her now (which he seemed comfortable knowing that someone was watching her) and she is not sick anymore. He knew that she was sick and that the doctor could not "fix" her anymore. Just be very careful using the word sick. he understood it. All I said is that she is much happier up in heaven. Every now and then he gets sad and tells me how much he misses her and we talk about it and he says but she's not sick so I am happy about that. Kids get it, he may suprise you. Good luck. Just talk about it and he'll get through it.
Good luck and hang in there and tell Gramma to hang in there also. It's a hard thing for anyone to go through

Our dog, Sammy, died last April the week before my daughter turned 3. We told her Sammy's spirit went to doggie heaven (mistake, my daughter still calls heaven "doggie heaven") and her body to a grave in the ground (we couldn't afford to get the ashes back). We made a list of things we loved about the dog. Whenever we felt sad we read the list and looked at pictures and cried.

I did tell her we would see Sammy again when we go to heaven. I did say that we all will die someday.

I was really careful with why the dog die. I didn't use the words old, sick or cancer, I said she had an illness, the vet couldn't help her and it was her time.

The good thing hat came out of it, is she is very interested in God and we read the Bible often.

We waited a while before getting another dog. She didn't take to him right away. It took a good 3-4 months for her to "like" him. Now she loves him, but she said when our new dog goes to dog heaven she wants a dalmatin!

Good luck. Keep it simple and truthful.

The best way that I found was to be honest with out too much detail. Doggie went to heaven and now he/she is happy and playing with the angels.

Hi L.,

The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst is wonderful.

T.

We just put our dog down. We told our 3 yr old that Justice was very sick and old and is in heaven now. She kept saying we should go get him and when is he coming back and we gently said never. She has stopped asking for him but says she misses him and we say yeah we miss him too. I would be as honest as you could...

There is a great book called "Dog Heaven" that explains it very well.
My mom got it for my brother and me when our beloved dog died when we were younger and I have (unfortunately) had to read it to my son (who is 3).

The book is excellent, still makes me tear up a little when I read it.

I am so sorry for your loss.
B.