I believe that children can benefit from having a pet and have written several posts on pets for children here

However, when a pet dies or has to be put down the pain can be almost too much to bear.

My first experience of death was the loss of my pet rabbit, Bambi, when I was about 5, I can remember having to stay home from school because I w\as so upset.

When we had to have our German shepherd dog, Max put to sleep the whole family were devastated; we buried him in the garden and my 12 year old son would go outside in his pyjamas every evening to blow him a kiss before going to bed. This was heart breaking to witness, but it was what he needed to do to handle the situation.

I remember coming home from school as a teenager and asking mum where the cat was, as usually he was sat in front of the fire. We were told that he had been put to sleep; at first my sister’s and I were angry with our parents because we thought they had needlessly had the cat killed, but later when it was explained that he was very unwell and in pain, we understood that it was the right thing to do.

When you have to talk to children about the loss of a pet pick an appropriate time; before going to bed or school are obviously not the right times: Talk calmly and honestly about what has happened and why- explaining that the vet did all he could and the animal would not have recovered.

When I lost my beloved Max I was working as a registered child minder, one boy asked where he was, when I told him that my dog had died and was in Heaven, he asked “Did a dinosaur kill him?” ( I presumed that because my dog was a large breed, the child thought that something even bigger must have killed him; although I was very sad, it did make me smile.

When my granddaughter discovered her hamster was deceased she told her mum that her grandad would look after it for her as he had also recently passed.

I have written on helping children cope with the loss of a parent in my post titled absent parents here

And if a child looses a grandparent this book that I have reviewed could help here

I would like to thank the Facebook friends who allowed me to use their photos in this post.

As always questions and comments are welcome.

Until next time.

Karen

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