Our guinea pig died :(

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

11yo dtds know as they found her.

I have agreed that we will bury her in the garden after school.

We haven't told 6yo dd yet. I'm not sure whether to tell her before or after we have buried her.

What do you think?

Aww I cried for 2 days when one of ours died a few months ago :(

I would tell her after school but before she you have buried her.

Sorry I seem to have a random 'she' in the second line.

One of our guinea pigs recently died. My three children (8,7,3) all got a chance to see the guinea pig before burial. We made a little remembrance card as well, with a photo and the date of birth/death and a few words. We did the same for the rabbit.

It's a good importunately to teach children about death.

I mean opportunity.

Ty.

Dds lost their grandad a few months ago so have 'learnt' about death in a much harder way. I might get older dds to help me dig a hole when they come home but wait for dd3 before burying. I just know she will want to see the body (its in a shoebox at the mo) and didn't know if that's a bit gruesome.

my children lost their grandfather very unexpectedly a few months ago as well.

Awww so sorry. We've had 2 piggies & a rabbit die over the years and it is never easy.
If you can, dig the hole in advance. One of our piggies died in the summer & the ground was rock hard & I just couldn't get the spade in. Made the mistake of doing it in the morning with the DCs howling in the background. Took forever to dig & was pure torture. Hopefully the ground will be nice and soft after all the rain & you won't have the same problem.

Oh poor you - hope your daughter will be OK. We had little funerals for all of ours, I put them in a shoe box full of hay, so it looked like they were just asleep and the kids put in little bits of food as well. Quite right about preparing the ground in advance, you can give her the option of whether she wants to see guinea before it is buried. - She is still very young so it might upset her - We put special stones on the top to mark the place ( pebbles from the beach) - and when they were smaller the kids did write little poems/drawings, anything that is a personal memory does help I think. Good luck.

Hole is dug. Off to buy some more hay so we can clean out hutch for the 2 remaining piggies (I can't do it at the mo because of broken finger strapping so have to wait for dtds to come in and do it).

Not looking forward to this. It was nominally dd3s piggie that has died :(

Very when a pet passes away. But you're right to get all your DC involved (my DD was about 4 IIRC when the cat was PTS - maybe younger).
DD and her big brother helped bury the cat which helped them alot with the finality of it.
Extra cuddles for the other pigs tonight.

Ty.

Older 2 still keep crying periodically. Which is completely understandable.

Dd3 wanted to look in the box, but I had said no cos I didn't want it to haunt her. When I turned my back to get the trowel she lifted the lid. Now she is insistent that she's just sleeping :( or she's just 'playing dead'.

We'll get through it.