I had a pet fish named Zim, and as I was going to bed one night, I noticed he was belly-up at the bottom of the tank and not moving. I went to bed a little sad that he'd died. The next morning, I saw a fish that looked exactly like my Zim floating around and I believed that Zim had just fallen a little too deeply asleep the night before, and that's why he'd sunk.
What's a little sad is I was 14 at the time.

Skittles-chan

I used to believe that when my dog De-De died, that just ment she had to live in the ground from then on. My friend Kelly and I tried to dig her up in the back yard so we could visit with her. My mother stoped us in time.

Jessica W.

My aunt and uncle had a pond across the street from their house....we used to skate on it in the winter. There were gold fish living in this pond that would get frozen into the ice....you could see their orange bodies suspended in the ice. I used to believe that when the ice melted in the spring...the goldfish would be released into the pond and swim away...frozen for the winter, and back to normal in the spring.

Anon

my grandpa & i found a frozen lizard while camping. he put it on the rocks next to the fire to "defrost", when i woke up the next morning the lizard was gone, grandpa said it un-froze and ran off - i still believe him!

jwheat

When I was in 3rd grade our neighbor accidentally ran over and killed my dog. It was easier for me to believe that he had done it on purpose than that an adult could have so little control over the world. Every morning for the next six months I would get up early and watch for the mailman to deliver his mail, then stuff his mailbox full of toads to avenge the murder of my pet.

Michele

When i was about 6 there was a neighborhood cat i named "Grey" (because he was all grey). Since he was at our house so much, i thought he lived with us, although he pretty much lived nowhere. One week he stopped coming around, and then there was a cat on a tv commercial that looked just like him. I thought that he had gone to Hollywood to be on tv. I really beleived this until i was old enough to realize he had probably died. Last year (when i was 30), when my mom finally told me that she found him that winter, dead and frozen under the front porch. I'm still traumatized by finding out like that.

Sara Jo

i used to believe that the dead cats on the road werent dead and that they just simply passed out cause they were scared. i told my mom this and she reassured me that once they woke up they would walk away and be safe from any harm.

brittany

I once overheard my older sister telling her son that the dead dog lying by the side of the road wasn't really dead, it just had the air let out of it.

Uncle Al

When my dog died when I was 6, my parents said I should bury her in an old jacket I used to wear so that she wouldn't get cold when she went to heaven.

I spent many a night looking out of my window after that, waiting to see my dog wearing my jacket, walking away from where we had buried her. I thought it odd that she had to be buried if she was going to be walking somewhere after she was dead.

I learned the truth eventually, but never regretted burying her in my jacket.

MFE

I grew up in New Zealand and one spring we got a pet lamb that we named 'rascal'. I was three at the time and loved feeding him from his bottle. He went away in Autumn and I cried until Dad told me would be back to have a holiday with us again next Spring. This went on until I was 8 and my brother told me that the lovely roasts every Winter were the lamb I had fattened every spring and it wasn't the same lamb! I went off lamb chops for about 2 whole days (they were my favourite)

Kate

when i was little i learned that hamburgers were made out of dead animals and when my hamster died the next time we had hamburgers i save the burger in a little box because i thought my hamster was in it.

Anon

I remember one really traumatic moment when my mother was talking to my sister about the "pound" and how they kill animals there. I heard "pond" and I imagined this big cement pond with people drowning animals. I really couldn't get over the fact that I wasn't allowed to have a dog and people would kill dogs. It took a few years before I knew it wasn't a big pond for drowning dogs and cats.

C

When I was growing up, my dad worked at a shipyard, and we'd go fishing there on weekends. While we were there, we'd see stray cats that the guys there kept around to catch mice.

So when our pets died, Dad would tell us he was taking them to work with him to live with the other animals. We believed him for the longest time, until I caught him burying one of our cats when I was 11.

Anon

I used to believe that when my fish died and we flushed them, they would go out to the ocean and live again, free.

Kara

I Used To Believe That When People Said, "Cats Have 9 Lives" They Meant It Literally. So, I Always Thought That If I Saw A Cat Get Ran Over By A Bus, He Would Pick Himself Up And Start Over Unless He Ran Out Of Lives.

Cocoa

When I was little (5 or 6 at most), I found a dead bird in the yard. I picked it up and brought it in to my dad, who yelled at me about the germs and told me to throw it back outside and wash my hands. I was so upset, because I had the firm belief that my dad could bring the poor birdy back to life. I mean...he could do everything else. Why not that?

Tina

We used to have a pair of water turtles. One night we left the window open and my little cousin found them the next day. Since the water was so cold, he thought they were freezing and decided that a couple of seconds in the microwave would warm them up.

Well, you should guess the result...

Alice

When i was 4, my uncle owned a farm where i spent weekends playing. One day i went to the pig pen only to find it empty? When i asked my uncle where the pigs had gone, he told me they had gone skiing and they would be back soon. Sure enough, each time the same thing happened and the pigs would return from skiing!

Never once did i question it!

Rach

When I was about 4, i had two pet goldfish who, when they died were replaced by my parents(which happened frequently)unbeknown to me. Eventually my parents got tired of replacing them, and decided after about the 10th visit to the pet shop,that that would be the last.When only 1 fish was left, they told me that the other was still there and living under the stones at the bottom of the tank, which seemed feasable to me at the time. It wasnt until i was in my teens and remembered this that i questioned it!

Jen

My cousin used to have a pet named Pamster the Hamster- it was a vicious little beast that bit everyone's fingers. One day her mother heard her calling "Look, Mommy! Pamster's letting me pet her!" And it certainly was... lying very, very quietly...

Anon