Our kids have such amazing innocence that sometimes I wish I still had it as well. In the last two weeks we have lost a fish and a hamster, and the kids still haven't figured out we have replaced them.
The fish a couple of weeks ago, was pretty much on it's last leg. Now this Beta has been around for about 2-3 years. Longer than we ever expected. He finally passed and the kids marveled on about how much he slept that day. That night when everyone was in bed, Scotty P. headed out to the store and replaced him (as closely as he could). Luckily, our kids aren't very observant either... The next day they marveled about how much he swam (because the other one barely moved during the day) and he must have caught up on all his energy.
Yesterday, the kids kept mentioning how much the hamster was sleeping during the day. He usually slept during the day, but when they talked to him, he would perk up. A few minutes later, Scotty P. comes to me and says - well, the hamster is dead. Awesome.
Now most parents, probably would just talk to their kids about death at this time, but two things happened here - 1. we just got him three weeks ago and 2. we think Petra may have killed him by body slamming the cage while she was "watching Petra TV".
The first thing that came to our mind is, CRAP. How are we going to find one that looks like the former "Turbo"?!
Mad scramble to get the kids out of the house and to pray and hope the pet store has one pretty similar. I take the kids out for grocery shopping and Scotty P heads straight to the pet store. 30 minutes go by and I get a text with a picture - Turbo 2.0.
Lessons learned with the hamster? 1. Put the cage up higher where Petra can't body slam the cage when she gets excited. 2. Hope the kids never become observant because this hamster is considerably larger than Turbo 1.0 and a LOT more active. (Now honestly, this hamster looks pretty damn close to the original one it would have taken me a while to figure out the difference.)
We know when time comes, we will not be able to do this anymore, especially when our Kiki-monster goes to Dog Heaven. It will be at that time we will have to sit them down and talk to them about death and teach them how to handle it the best for them.
And who knows, they may be more accepting and aware of death than what we give them credit for at this moment. Which I hope they are, and when the time comes to talk to them about it, I hope they understand and realize it's part of life and the cycle we live and there is nothing we can do to stop the inevitable, even if we want to.
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