Kids Coping with the Loss of a Pet

Pet loss isn't easy for anybody, but what if you have a child in the household? Dr. Amanda Bruce has some advice on what to do if your family loses a furry friend."Pet loss is often one of the first losses a child will experience so i thought i'd go through some points that I've been through with my own child. I'm not an expert but these things worked in our household," Dr. Bruce said. Kids will have questions and a lot of them. But Dr. Bruce recommends not going into extreme depth with the situation. "I think it's very important to be very truthful to your kids so if you have a very sick or ill pet, you want to be honest. Kids don't need every detail but they do need honest answers," Dr. Bruce said. She advises using words children are familiar with so you can answer their questions clearly. "When our pet died i just made sure we were in a safe and comfortable environment and i just said to my daughter what had happened, just very truthfully," Dr. Bruce explained. And memorializing your pet in some way is also very important. "We were lucky enough that we were able to bury our pets on a property that we have, but if you're in the city or your pet dies in the winter you may not have the opportunity to bury your pet," Dr. Bruce said. In those instances, making a photo scrapbook or writing a special story would be a great way to memoralize that pet. "Realize that they're going to have the same grief and questions and i'ts okay to show emotion and recognize that pet and that months later questions may come up," Dr. Bruce informed. Letting other caregivers and teachers klnow about the situation is important, too. "So realizing that they may have emotional issues at school or daycare of amongst friends that need to be dealt with and having everybody in the picture aware that they may be going through something traumatic is something that's very important," Dr. Bruce said. And what about bringing a child with you to put the animal down? "I'm not a fan in really young kids. I think a child needs to be emotionally mature enough to understand what death is and why there would be a need for putting a pet to sleep and ending suffering. They should have the emotional awareness to comprehend what was going on," Dr. Bruce explained. If your pet passes away on its own, just be honest. "Usually if a pet passes away at home there has usually been some sort of illness leading up to it, so talking with your child about our pets getting old or this is going on, sometimes pets you don't know something's going on, so just honesty. I'm not really sure what happened but this is how we're going to deal with it," Dr. Bruce suggested.