Saying Goodbye to a pet is never easy

"Hazel died. They tried to wake him up but he didn't want to wake up. And he had germs."

My daughter repeated this everyday for weeks, sometimes multiple times. This was after, she heard the sad news from one of her Aunties, one of the two guinea pigs her cousins had adopted had died. We've never met their guinea pigs, except through video calls. Like many others they adopted their Guinea Pig pets during the Pandemic. Sadly, death is a part of life and part of having a pet or even getting to know a cousin's pet (even just through video).

The news of the guinea pigs wasn't her first exposure to death. She saw Disney's Lion King a couple of years ago and for those who haven't seen it, the Dad Lion dies. After watching that movie, she started having bad dreams for weeks. She worried that her own Dad would be gone.

We don't have our own pets yet but she has been wanting one. We plan to wait a little longer before we think she will be ready to take on that new responsibility and be gentle enough with them.

I, myself, have had quite a few experiences with pets dying in my lifetime (most of them got sick) and looking back on them, it's never easy. Kids are really sensitive but kids are also very resilient!

I'm not sure whether my daughter really grasps the entire concept of death. I do know that she knows that they are "gone" and it's sad. She currently expresses her emotions by saying something makes her feel sad or mad, and repeating the incident over and over (which she did with the news of the guinea pig). Just listening to her and really paying attention to what she is thinking about helped more than we realized.

Her cousins recently adopted 2 more guinea pigs and she has met them through video and enjoys watching them running on the grass. 

Thanks for reading, and remember, don't forget your snacks!