putting down pet dog and trygin to explain it to my young daughter

dodohert

Hi all
I just stumble onto this site while broswsing for a cocker spaniel. On Monday our long time pet 'Jenie' had to be put down. she attacked & bit a person whom just happen to be passing by our house. she always been a house dog ,sure she barked at ppl passing by while sitting looking out of out window but never attacked anyone before.

Both me & my wife are totally heartbroken. the pain of losing her is too much.
I'm now racked with guilt & sorrow for having done such a thing, our home feels so empty without her, even though we have a 4yr old daughter, & keeps asking when she's coming home to us. Jenie was member of this family before we had bought our home & before our daughter came along so maybe you can imagine the emptyness in our lives we are feeling right now.

So if there's an understanding dog lover out there willing to help ease our heart break... I'm looking a golden cocker spaniel.

Thank you for reading this post.
DD.

Pythia

When I was little, I was told our cat went to a farm to play and run around in and I never questioned it until a few years ago. It made sense to me at the time so I just accepted it. It was only when I started thinking about that cat as a teenager that I realised there was no farm! Funny really...

BizzyC

Your daughter's only 3 years old, as lisa said, she'll soon forget.
I think that a child of that age is just too young to understand death, so being brutally honest is a waste of time.
Just tell her that the dog has gone to heaven, so it can be happy again.

She'll be upset, but as Ph3n0m pointed out, children that age will bounce back fairly quickly.

*Page*

lisa.c wrote:

this isnt to sound mean or athen but by next year your daughter will not remember the dog so why inflict the thought of a dead doggy on her i think for time being it is best to tell her that he's gone to a puppy farm or back to his mammy as he missed her.

ok my kid lost her dog when she was 3.5 she's soon to be 5 and she still ask's about her doggy!! So cop on. Children have great memories.


To the OP best thing to do is to explain that he is sick and he needs to go away to get better. Dont do the death thing, children do not need to understand that just yet.

i was told as a very young child that my dog and gone away to live with my cat (who had gotten knocked down the year before hand) for years i believe him.. and it was fine. when i found out the truth i was old enough to understand death.


best of luck its a hard thing to do.

joejoem

gillo wrote:

The dog is ill, he's gone blind and needs constant attention, (eg has to actually be held in front of the food bowel to find food, he also managed to walk straight into a pond yesterday).

The descussion I don't mind, it's the "high horse" people who know "that it is completely wrong to kill anything" and that I'll burn in hell. This is the first time I've ever personnally known anyone who has to put a dog down so it's emotional enough for myself.

But thanks for the advice.

Hey, I feel your pain here, I am really close to my dog and my heart stops anytime anything is wrong with her or she wanders out the open door.

Anyway I remember our first family dog became very ill (she was poisined by our crazy neighbour which I found out recently) and she had to be put down, she couldnt walk and could barely breath. Apperantly Rat Poisin had made her blood and arterys swell. I was 9 and the dog was bought the day I was born. My family didnt hide it, they explained that she was very ill and had to be helped move to heaven, it was the right thing to do. Now dont get me wrong, I was devestated, I cried for 3 days and wouldnt do anything and to think of it still (15 years on) I get a lump in my throat. I think telling your daughter is the right thing to do, life is hard sometimes and thats just something we all need to learn. Best of luck, and I'm very sorry for your loss.

lomb

if its going blind its hardly in pain, the long and the short of it is u cant/dont want to look after it and u think it would b better off dead. so tell ur daughter the truth. :rolleyes:

koneko

People, read the date on the original post, there is no point giving gillo advice, I doubt he/she has waited a year to say anything to his/her daughter.

Mighty_Mouse

Tell her the butchers was closed and you couldnt get anything else for Sunday Dinner!

Gillo

lomb wrote:

if its going blind its hardly in pain, the long and the short of it is u cant/dont want to look after it and u think it would b better off dead. so tell ur daughter the truth. :rolleyes:

Lomb, your sympathy pulls touches me, your compassion pulls at my heart strings, your burthal honesty is stark; as Dale Carnaige once quoted (your ignorance is exceeded only by your ignorance. The blindness didn't cause any pain, it was more the walking into everything that caused constant distress.

People who gave advice thanks, in the end I explained that he was sick wand was going away to somewhere where a nice man would look after him, I think we mentioned a farm. beth (my daugher) still mentions him from time to time so yes she still remembers having a dog.

lomb

gillo wrote:

Lomb, your sympathy pulls touches me, your compassion pulls at my heart strings, your burthal honesty is stark

thats very kind of u to say, brutal words because the truth is brutal :rolleyes:

Victor

Mighty_Mouse banned

líreacán

Sympathies big time. When our dog was put down, we told my little cousin (3 at the time) he was very sick and had gone to Heaven. He now tells people or dog was sick and had to go Kevin's. Dunno what's gonna happen when he meets someone called Kevin... probably ask for the dog back...

Zillah

TheWolf wrote:

Better than listening to her writing poetry in a few years along the lines of "I had a cat called snowball, she died, she died..." :dunno:

"...They said she was sleeping. They lied, they lied..."

tman

just don't go for my dad's method... "oh yeah, your cat's dead by the way"