Yesterday we lost one of our animal children. My husband has such a deep connection to his dogs and the loss has hit him hard. Seeing his deep pain is heartbreaking.

The task was mine to tell the kids. I scoured the internet for stories of those who have done it before me. I told the children the night prior that our dog was very old and had gotten sick. We prepared them for the inevitable by telling them that she would be dying very soon. They already had a sense something was wrong based on all the recent vet visits. We told them to spend a lot of time with her giving her lots of love. They wrote her notes. It was such a genuine outpouring of feeling from such little hearts.

That night, we took her out to go to the bathroom. She was feeling pretty weak. The first time we checked in she was shaky but no worse than she’d been. The second time, she wasn’t breathing. We brought her inside, covered her up, and said our goodbyes.

In the morning, I told each of the kids separately that our friend had died at night. I let them see her and pet her one last time before they went off to school.

I hate to see so much grief in our home, but I would not trade the years with our canine kid. We’ll miss her.

Be loving, friends.

MM