Homeschool on the Fly

• Mar. 7, 2009 - Death and growing up?

It has been a very long 6 months. We lost my aunt in September, my husband's uncle in January, my son-in-law's grandfather in February, our 3 year old cat died just after Valentine's Day, and I finally put down my aunt's cat the following week(behavioral peeing all over my house....couldn't make her stop!)

So, we've been to 3 funerals, and lost 2 pets. My son has been very well behaved at the funerals, and he knew that our little cat was dying. But when the little guy finally died, my son really had a hard time with it. He keeps asking me if he will see Smudge in Heaven, since Smudge never did anything wrong. And when I made the decision to euthanize Cuddles, he kept trying to convince me that all we had to do was keep her in a cage for the rest of her life, since he felt that she would rather live that way than die. I thought that he was finally over all of his tears, but they all came back again when we picked up Smudge's ashes from the vet. He carried the box home very carefully, and was singing to Smudge, and saying prayers for him. The next morning, he decorated the box, so that anyone who saw it would know that Smudge was a well loved pet.

I always thought that growing up meant that people you know start dying, but it is a hard lesson to learn at only 6 years of age....I hope that I did the right thing by allowing him to come to the funerals, and to say good-bye. Many parents leave the child home, I'm not sure if it because they are afraid that the child will misbehave, or that they will be unable to process the loss and grief. I tend to think that he is becoming more empathetic because of his experiences, and that it will serve him well in the future.

On a lighter note, after the second cat in a week died, my son stopped crying long enough to say...."Well, maybe now we can get a puppy...!" I must have been out of my mind...we now have a 5 month old Japanese Chin, who looks the same as our Persian cat, and has the bladder the size of a lentil. But that is fodder for another day....