Share the good and bad, and bond with your child.

Several years ago, my little King Charles Cavalier was killed in my backyard by a coyote. It was horrible. I loved that little dog because he was like my shadow. After he disappeared I looked through the day and night for him and finally found him in the tall grass in a pasture abutting my yard.

When I found him, my 4-year-old granddaughter was with me. She loved the dog too. I bent down, picked him up and we both burst into tears.  I don’t know who cried harder- she or I. I wrapped him in his favorite blanket and the two of us buried him. Some of you may feel that I should never had let her see this but I had no choice. When I looked for him, I couldn’t leave her in the house alone. As I buried him with her beside me she asked of dogs go to heaven.

“Yes,” I said. “I believe they do. When Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden there were animals there. I have come to believe that heaven is a lot like the garden.

“Oh good” she said….