We just had to put our dog to sleep on Sunday night. We have a 27-month-old daughter who is missing her best buddy terribly, but doesn’t at all understand the concept that he’s not coming back. I explained to her that he got old and his body stopped working and that he will never be back, but I think she’s just too young to get the concept. She asks for him multiple times a day, and we explain it to her again. Having to do this repeatedly is breaking my husband’s heart–adopting Kiska was the first thing he did when we bought our first house, and he’s utterly miserable about it. If it were up to me, we’d adopt another dog, but my husband isn’t ready for that.
Any ideas on how to help my daughter (and by extension my husband) get through this?
If the body hasn’t been disposed of already, have a funeral for the pet, then bury it in the backyard. For that matter, I suppose you could do something similar without a body–just a memorial thing, show some pictures of the pet, let hubby eulogize it.
Sorry to hear about your dog. I think, unfortunately, that the only way to handle it with your daughter is to repeat the same thing over and over when she asks, just as you’ve been doing. It just takes a while to process something major like that. My now 4yo talked about the squirrel that got hit by the car for 18 freaking months. My grandmother died this fall and we still need to talk about it whenever she thinks of it.