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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
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