Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Children and Death

It is interesting to see how the boys take the death of Happy differently. Just tonight Tot asked once again, "Where is Happy?". Again, I told him he was in Heaven with Papa and probably coming by to sleep in his room with him again. Happy loved sleeping in Tot's room. Then again, Tot was alot like Papa. Always sneaking treats to Happy.

Friday we had to have Happy 'put down'. The boys actually came in after he was dead and petted him one last time. Tater had tears in his eyes. Tot was confused. As we made the trip home, there was a discussion on getting another pet. Tot started with "Can we have a fish?". Yes, but not right now. Then it was "Can we have a hamster?". Again, not right now. "We can't have a cat, can we?" Nope, mom is allergic to cats. Tater was in on this conversation as well. It was difficult and understandable all at the same time. Tot was drawing pictures of Happy dog on his doodle pad as we talked. He kept holding them up for me to see between all the questions.

I actually handled that part well. It wasn't until we were home and Tater was changing underwear (happens everytime a male in this house poops)... he called me back to the bathroom.

Tater: Mom, since the dog doctor buried Happy, can we go back up in a couple of days and leave flowers on his grave?
Mom: **blink, deep breath** Remember we talked about planting a tree for Happy? How about we put the flowers under the tree for him instead of making that drive up north?
Tater: Can we get rock and pound his name into some cement?
Mom: ** deep breath ** Yep, we can work something out to get him a marker as well. It will all take time.

Well, since then it has rained all weekend... I had to have some teeth work done and we are getting ready for school. I'm hoping I can work something out this week but it will probably be this weekend. Wish me luck.

5 comments:

pam said...

It sucks that we have to learn about death, doesn't it?

Fortunately, $ex will be much more fun for them to learn... ;)

Ya'll hang in there; it's never easy loosing a friend. {Hugs}

Roses said...

The tree is an awesome idea.

You take your time. It's not like you'll forget your Happy dog if you don't do it right away.
(((another hug)))

Bou said...

Dang it. I meant to talk to you about markers while you were here. GRRR

Bou said...

Holy crap. What was I thinking. I was not. "Can we get a rock and pound his name into cement..." There is a way for you to MAKE his stone. They have it at Learning Express. You can make a garden stone. We'll talk...

Marie said...

They're such sweeties. This has to be a very rough time for all of you... Hugs...