I used to believe that the school rabbit liked the red berries that grew in the hedge. But then he died.

Charlotte

as a kid I was once given the job of looking after the school goldfish at half term. unfortunately two of them died so my mum feely guilty replaced them with 3 new ones. when I told the teacher what happened she said that's all right, we used to have one - now we've got seven. for several years I thought she meant they had babies.

johnboy

One day our neighbour was walking his 4 year old son to school. Along the way the little boy spotted a bird in the gutter, so he gave it a nudge with his toe. When it didn't move he asked his father why it didn't fly away. His father explained that the bird was broken (i.e. dead). Instead of getting upset the little boy said firmly "It's alright Dad, the man will fix it." No matter how hard his Dad tried to tell him that the bird couldn't be fixed the little boy was adamant. The next day when they walked the route to school again the bird was gone so the boy turned to his dad and said "See! The man fixed it" and smiled smuggly.

Jeremy

My dead tortoise was buried in the garden - next spring I found a live tortoise at the same point - unbeknown to me my parents had bought another one but told me it was the original one. I believed this until early adulthood!

Julie

My pet rabbit disappeared and I was told it had been stolen - many years later I found it had been killed and we had eaten it!

Sylvia

Until I was around 8, I thought cows were killed nicely!

Duncan