Death of a Family Pet

[Bernie]

Hi, I was after a bit of advise. Our family cat is being put down this week :( and I was wondering what I tell my mindees? We are not religious but also don't want to scare or confuse with terms like 'Put to sleep'.

Any advise

Many Thanks

[AliceK]

Hi
Sorry to hear this.

I think if it were me I would just say that he/she was very sick and had sadly died. BUT I would only say this if the mindees noticed and wanted to know where the cat was or obviously if you or your own children? were upset and mindees needed to know why. I don't think I would mention having to go to the vets and having the cat put to sleep or anything like that.

Hope you are ok.

xxxxxxxxx

[haribo]

hi , sorry to hear about your cat:( i think it depends on the age of the mindees i agree the term p.t.s can be confusing - or saying the vet gave an injection to help the cat die may make a child scared stiff of needles . i just tell them the pet was too ill to live anymore and has gone to heaven :) and wont have anymore pain . its a gradual process of realising what death means and if handled well children accept it even though not quite understanding.. with my own kids we always had hamsters and fish and would have little buriel services so they knew the pet was not coming back .

[Tups]

I went through this not long ago :( I told my mindee tups had gone to heaven because she was very old and tired and was now happy in her new home having a good rest. feel sad now :crying: :crying: tups x

[newbie]

We had to put our family dog to sleep only a few weeks ago and it was heartbreaking. I told my own children that he had died in his sleep whilst the vet was taking care of him. I explained that he was very old and very tired but yet in heaven they are young again and full of energy, chasing bunny rabbits and playing lots of games with other dogs.

I text all my mindees parents at the time so that if they felt the need to, they could explain it to their children before they came round which seemed to work well.

I don't think any child would be able to understand the concept of putting a pet 'to sleep' as such :(.

[Shirlwith3]

Sorry to hear about your cat, I had to make that decsion on Saturday my cat was 13yrs old & went into Kidney failure & despite being on a drip for 24hrs it was advise to let her go.
I have not sadi anything to the minded children as 1 is 18months & the other is 6months. WE have told our 5yr dd we just said she had died & had join Grandma & out other pets that we have had to say good bye. WE even plant a plant so we can all take it in turns to water the plant.

[haribo]

Sorry to hear about your cat, I had to make that decsion on Saturday my cat was 13yrs old & went into Kidney failure & despite being on a drip for 24hrs it was advise to let her go.
I have not sadi anything to the minded children as 1 is 18months & the other is 6months. WE have told our 5yr dd we just said she had died & had join Grandma & out other pets that we have had to say good bye. WE even plant a plant so we can all take it in turns to water the plant.

shirl im so sorry i didnt know this had happened ive been thinking of you though xxx

[LOOPYLISA]

Sorry to hear about your cat, I had to make that decsion on Saturday my cat was 13yrs old & went into Kidney failure & despite being on a drip for 24hrs it was advise to let her go.
I have not sadi anything to the minded children as 1 is 18months & the other is 6months. WE have told our 5yr dd we just said she had died & had join Grandma & out other pets that we have had to say good bye. WE even plant a plant so we can all take it in turns to water the plant.

Im so sorry, my fluffy had kidney failure and we had him put to sleep :(

We have a rose where he is buried x

[louised]

One of our cats sadly died in February and out of 6 mindees only one has noticed so far as I took the decision to say nothing unless they asked, I told her that he had gone to heaven and she was happy with that

[sarah32]

I chose not say anything to my mindee's when our dog passed away a couple of months ago.

Only one noticed and just explained that Simba was now in heaven now playing with other dogs.

[flora]

Having as many animals as we do, death is something we have had to deal with alot over the yrs.

Keep it simple.

My three yr old understand about putting animals down, both by shooting ( we shoot the pigs) and by injection. You would be amazed at what they can comprehend. If you don't want to say about injection just say the vet gives them medicine ???

Be carefull of using heaven as a place that they go, I only say this as we buried our dog last yr. Hannah wanted to be there and say goodbye and dealt with this brilliantly ( better than me)

Then some well meaning friend talked about Ben being in heaven and she couldn't get her head around ben being in two places at once as she knows he is buried under a tree in the horses field !!!

At the end of the day only you know your mindees well enough to say how they will cope. Some may say I am too brutal if that is the word, but I always make sure it is age appropriate and as I say kept it simple and it has always worked for me.

Good luck x x

[Bernie]

Thank you ALL so much for all your kind words and great advise. The 'date' is Friday evening so we'll have the weekend to get used to the fact as a family before minding day on Monday. All the kids are very close to the cat (2 3/4, 3 and 4years) so I think they will notice he has gone. I like the idea of planting a plant for them to look after.

Its not going to be nice, but I guess its a part of life.

Thanks again xx :littleangel: