How do I tell my kids that our dog is dead?
 

It's been a rough 12 hours.

last night our dog Josie (small Shepard mix who's been in the family 11 years) was all of a sudden extremely catatonic and panting on her side. Her head was twitching and eyes shut. We took her to the animal emergency room around midnight and admitted her. Diagnosis was that she was bleeding in her eyes and gums and her blood had only 1 percent the platelets it should have.

Without the ability to clot, she had developed internal bleeding. There was blood filling her head and causing neurological damage form pressure on her brain. Today it got worse and we made a tough, difficult decision to euthanize her.

24 hours ago she was 100 percent normal.
This has come so sudden and so difficultly. Our kids are 8 and 9 and we haven't told them. They don't even know we took her to the hospital yet, but they saw her sick last night.

I'm sure some of you have gone through pet loss with kids. Just looking for some tips. We're supposed to go get a Christmas tree tonight after school. Do I tell them first? afterward? I cannot believe we'll be able to do it without us crying. my wife for sure.

You did the right thing.



I would be upfront and open with them. They will take it hard when ever you tell them. Better to get it done, and then maybe you can go somewhere quiet and have a "memorial service" in her honor and get your tree.

Sorry to hear, man.

My advice is to be direct. Tell them you did everything you could, let them see how hard it is for you, and expect a rough night. Crying in front of them is fine.

Find a dog that looks just like her and replace her. It works on every sitcom ever.

Tell them the pet died and it's apart of life. That's why you have to enjoy the time with them because it is not long. It's ok to be sad, but if you want to cheer yourself up close your eyes and remember the times when you were playing with the dog.

This, and a new puppy for Christmas.

:spock:

and then introduce them to Airwolf on Hulu. Stringfellow Hawke will dry their tears...

My dad told me my dog died while we were at Disneyland. I was 9. You can't do much worse than that.

Damn man, sorry for your loss.

I don't think I'd have the heart to and I'd tell them she ran away.

:( I had dogs airwolf and blue thunder and mimi from riptide

can't do that, then they'd always be looking for her.


My buddy told his kids their dog went to the farm to live. They kept asking to go visit.

Sorry to hear this, man. Don't know the answer, but I feel for you.

Sorry about your dog, Bro.

The answer to your question is:

A new puppy.

In reality, I would say this.

"Today we took Josie to the doctor because she looked very sick and the doctor said there was nothing we could do so we had to put her down."

I think thats the best way to word it.

Sucks to hear Tiny.

8 and 9? Might as well get the birds and the bees done at the same time and get all the awkward conversation done at one time.

I like the idea of puppy for Christmas. You and your wife might find it hard, but the kids will have a much easier time with another dog.

Tell them the truth. No way to sugar coat it. She got very sick, and didn't want her to suffer any longer.

I've had to put a pet to sleep before. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
Hang in there, TL...

Tell them the truth. She was extremely sick and you couldn't stand to see her suffer.

You know, it never occurred to me until now, but we had a dachshund when I was a little kid, and my mom told me she gave it to some people who lived out in the country so it would have more room to run and could play with other dogs. But it didn't like other dogs, and it was a friggin dachshund - seriously, how much room does a dachshund need? And we never went to visit it, either.

:spock:

Mom was apparently a great liar, because it's taken me about 35 years to figure this one out.

Tell them Mangino ate it.

Kids....fluffy died this morning. Whoooo...now that that is over with...let's talk about sex. :clap:

Sorry for your loss.

Major suck man, sorry to hear. I lost my dog two years ago, she was a mini schanuzer also named Josie. I never cried so hard as the day she died.

I don't think there is anything wrong with letting them know that you helped her in her suffering by having her put down. It's a good way to explain that death happens and being merciful to end her suffering is a good thing.

That's the problem with dogs. You know they are going to die. My 'ol girl is 11 and she's getting up there. Starting to have a lot of problems, as old hound dogs will do. She's comfortable, but I'm not going to take extraordinary measures on her at her age. If she gets bad, I'll put her down.

...and then drink a lot. She's a damn good dog...

My Doxie's need a lot of room.

There will be no easy way. Direct is best.
I am more sorry than you can know for your loss. I would not rush in to a new dog. In the spring time go to wayside waifs (or your local pound) and save a dogs life. You will not have to potty train in winter and you will be doing a good thing.

Ang

Sorry to hear that. The truth is hard, but best, and they will see your love and compassion. Maybe they can make some tree ornaments to remember her for the holiday, or you could just pick up some photo frame ornaments and let them pick out their favorite pictures to fill them.

My old girl (12 yr old shepherd mix) gave me a good scare last month but pulled through. I'm hoping she's good for another couple of years.

...with the promise of a new puppy?

Just make sure this is playing loudly in the background when you tell them:

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<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZnHmskwqCCQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></object>

Sorry for you loss bro, I'd just be upfront with them. Let them know that Josie was sick and hurting and she is in a place where she'll be hurting no more. Let them and yourself cry it out if necessary, but still get the tree. This is the time of the year, whether hardships or not, to be close as a family. Good luck and God bless....

Had a turtle - who lived in an aquarium - in the basement, and my mom told me he ran away.

And you believed her?

RePet

DAMMIT! I was gonna post this.

I sat with TinyE at a Chiefs game though so I'm not gonna make light of this.

Just tell them the truth. Losing my first dog hurt but I got over it and I remember the good times.

My son is 31 and he just recently had the same revelation come to him. He calls me up one night and says "Hey, you didn't really take the dog to live on a ranch, did you?". I laughed my ass off.

Tiny, I agree it's best to be honest. Otherwise, you'll get called on it in 20 or so years. Maybe a little longer if your kids are like Frazod.

I was like 5 and I didn't really have an emotional attachment to the turtle so I didn't think too much about it.

ROFL

Just tell them what happened and they'll be fine in the long run.

My dad didn't have to worry about what/how to tell us kids. He just put 'em down with his old .22 rifle. Wasn't much need for words after that.

Sorry to hear that, buddy.

Just be honest.

Make a youtube video about it. That way other parents can use your strength to tell their kids under similar circumstances.

Yup. $.25 instead of $150.

Thanks, asshole. :D

I have 3 kids and we are an "animal" family - we've had/have just about anything a pet store sells and even some "farm" animals. We have had many funerals.

Honesty is best. The tears are going to come no matter what but they will stop.

I'd wait until after getting the tree unless they ask ....

Sorry for your loss, J.

Honesty is the best policy here.

Best of luck.

Send em a text message.

new pets don't just replace old ones IMO

They do eventually.

not if you loved your pet they don't

New pets make it easier to go on, that's all I'm saying. It doesn't mean the new pet will replace the memories of the old pet.

ROFL

You asshole.
Posted via Mobile Device

a 17 year old cat of my parents crawled into a sewer yesterday. I hope he died immediately and he's not starving to death in the cold, because my parents didn't try to get him out. He was originally my cat but he outlived my stay

sorry dude. that sucks.

wont' be easy, that's for sure. Hopefully everythign goes as well as it 'can' given the situation.

Lots of people have already said what is right. Just tell them about what happened and explain it's the normal cycle of life.

With that said DO NOT get a new puppy until the grief has fully subsided because the new puppy will develop some bad character traits coming into a home with no pack leadership because everyone will be grieving and doting over the new puppy. Make sure and give everyone proper time to grieve and wait until that is over before getting a new dog.

Sorry to hear that T.E. Be upfront and tell them.

Do not listen to the infidel; get a new dog.:p

Whenever my schanuzer died, I was here in CoMo and my dad was in KC.

He called me out of the blue...which i didnt think was normal, he didn't sound right. I knew already what had happened. But he was afraid to tell me, and just made up something as to why he called me. I was going on a date that night.....so I guess he didn't want to put me in a bad mood.

The next day he called me, crying saying sorry he lied to me and said that he put Sparky to sleep. once he called me I started tearing up because I already knew what it was about. It's one of them things where you just know or have a feeling. I was pissed at him.....I was only an hour 1/2 away, I wish he would have told me he was going to do it and I would have driven back to KC to go with him. Oh well.

Im sorry! It sucks losing a pet. I hope she didn't suffer too much. Good luck to you and your family and I hope, however you tell the kids goes according to plan.

I agree with this having experienced it both ways. A quick replacement leads to expectations of similarity and isn't fair to the new dog or respectful of the old.

I don't think anybody is advocating getting a new dog immediately, but I think you should do it fairly soon. IMO Christmas would be perfect. It's still early in the month at this point.

man,
I got no words of wisdom or advice. honesty, sincere talks and explanations is about all you can do.
I'm so sorry for ya man. and your kids.

Sorry to hear that, tiny. It's a rough situation. Maybe the parents around here know better than me, but my initial hunch is that they'll be more resilient than the adults. I've unfortunately lost pets over the years, but I've felt the losses much more acutely as an adult than as a kid.

Same here. Sorry for your loss.

That's truly terrible.

I'm very sorry.

Dogs are better than the vast majority of people out there. :(

This.

That was my first thought...


Sorry to here and tell them and it will suck for a while...

Go rent old yeller...

A man went on vacation and asked his brother to watch his house, and take care of his cat, whom the man loved.

A few days later, he called his brother. "Hey! How's everything going?"

"Good," his brother said. "But the cat's dead."

"What? What do you mean, the cat's dead?!?"

"Sorry, man, it just died."

"Jesus, dude! You had to tell me like that?!?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, couldn't you break it to me a little easier? That was harsh!"

"How?"

"I dunno! Maybe the first time I talked to you, you could've said, 'The cat got out and is on the roof'. Then the next day you could've said, 'The cat fell off the roof'. Then the third day you could've said, 'The cat's not doing so good.' THEN you could've told me the cat died! You know, sort of ease me into it!"

"Oh, geez, bro, I'm sorry."

"That's okay, it was just a shock to hear you blurt it out like that." The man sighed. "So, anyway... how's ma?"

"Oh... she's on the roof."





















Hey, don't blame me, my dad told me that one.

ROFL

When I was a kid I got home from school and my dad was waiting for me with very serious look on his face. He told me to sit down that he had something to tell me. I was so nervous, then he said your mom is gone. I just started crying instantly, then he said he was just kidding, mom was fine, but the dog was gone. I was so relieved about my mom it made the dog news much easier to take. However, I can't recommend this approach.

That's just sick.

Buy your dad a drink for me, he's awesome. LMAO

You could do it subtley.

You could take the Wizard of Oz... and when they cheer "Ding dong the witch is dead" at the end of the movie...

you could edit the audio. "Hey kids, your dog is dead". Then you don't have to tell them... the movie can tell them.

I might of told them that Hannah Montana murdered your dog. Her or Sammy Kershaw. That way your kids grow up to hate country music.

He def has a way with telling things. When my parents got divorced after 30 years of marriage, he told me he was leaving because mom stopped putting out.

Get them some new dogs

Gather kids in a room and ask "All those here with a dog name Josie please step forward." And just about as they are halfway in stepping forward you say "Not so fast Kids".

........ Sorry for you loss......

In serious terms it sucks for you and them. Them for the loss but double for you and your wife because of the loss and then you have to see the kids deal with hurt. For a parent that is the worse thing because you can't do anything about it. On the positive side though this is a good life lesson (morbid thought I know) but one of let us as a family enjoy what we have today...... Good luck and you and your wife will find the correct way for them.

You should tell them the dogs turned mad and went into their room and started to destroy all their toys and you had no choice but to shoot them. that way they'll say thanks Dad.

Well, I did it.

We took them to yogurt after school and I told them. I said I had some bad news to tell them. I told them about what happened. I didn't tell them we euthanized her, just said she fell asleep at the hospital and succumbed to her illness and died. My 9 year-old cried pretty severely, which is OK.

Honesty is the best policy, as long as you don't go into too much detail. I think the worst part of this, for all of us, has been how quickly it happened. less than 24 hours from completely normal to gone.

I told the kids the story of how we got Josie. I was volunteering at a no-kill shelter, installing some cabinets in a room of surplus cat pens. There was a small Shephard mix up in one of the cat pens, quietly and attentively watching me work. We had never talked about getting a pet, but I went home and told my wife we should adopt this one. Somehow she touched my heart.

Her name was "Benny" because when the person brought her in as a stray the shelter was going to turn her away because every dog pen was full. Well, one of their biggest benefactors happened to be in the lobby. He said, "You're going to take her, no matter where she has to stay, and he wrote them a big donation check.
That man was Ben Stein.

We renamed her Josie because we already had two cats. Josie and the Pussycats.

Maybe I'll name our next dog Buehler.

Thanks for listening guys.

TE

Awesome story. Props to you and Ben Stein. :thumb:

Truth with couth. Sounds like you handled a tough situation well, its never easy as a parent when your kids are emotionally hurting.

On a side note did the vet ever mention the possibility of her consuming rat poison?

It came up at first when he was asking questions when we first brought her in, but after the blood tests came back that was ruled out.

Well they appeared to tell you what was happening but did they ever diagnose what would cause such to happen?
I've only heard of poisoning doing that kind of damage that quick.