We have just buried poor little Sniffle Rat in the back garden:
I wish I knew exactly what had happened; JJ and a friend were playing with him this morning and somehow I think his little neck got broken. JJ came running into my office mid-phonecall shouting that he'd gone all floppy. She is devastated; this was her first pet and she called him "my little baby". I will miss him too, he was a spirited young rat. We will have to get a new companion for poor Doodles who has lost his playmate. Sigh.
The timing is strange: the girls were questioning their dad carefully in the bath last night about death, what it meant and whether we were going to die. This is the first time they have really thought about this: one of their friends, our neighbour, has just lost her dad very suddenly to cancer. Sekkie's nursery school teacher has very lovingly and beautifully created a space in which the three- and four-year-olds can process this -- they are having a special goodbye Festival today -- and she has warned us to expect questions and concerns. So I guess JJ has quite a lot to think about right now. After all the morning's trauma I have parked her in front of Fantasia with the friend, because sometimes escapism is right.
And then, just because life is like that, this is how beautiful the walk to school was this morning:
Friday, July 18, 2008
First you get the pets, then you bury the pets
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2 comments:
My daughter was 4 the first time I faced a life-threatening infection. You know, it ran through my mind that I simply MUST make it through because she was too young to lose her mother.
Yes; it is one of those early-hours nightmare scenarios. I wish I could honestly promise my girls that no, of course I won't die; but it would be a lie. All I can do is say that I'm going to try my very best not to if I can possibly help it.
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