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

When I was nine or ten, I found a grasshopper and decided to keep it as a pet. I named it Hopper, I think, and I kept him in a shoe box with leaves and a drop of water. I kept him for several days, and after awhile he stopped eating and moving completely. I thought that he was sad, so I decided to release him back into the wild, a.k.a. my back yard. I put Hopper on the patio table and left him there, expecting him to hop away eventually. He didn't move AT ALL for the next couple of days, but for some reason I never realized he was dead. He was even covered in ants at one point, and I just brushed them off 'cuz I didn't want them to hurt Hopper. He dissaperad from the table after that.

It wasn't until a few days ago I realized that not only was Hopper dead after Day Two, but that the leaf I gave him was poisonous; it was the kind with milk in it. Poor Hopper!

Cricket

When I was little we took my dog, Toffy, to the SPCA, supposedly to be adopted. My parents told my brother and I that our dog had gone to a lovely family that lived on a farm that had lots of space for Toffy to run around on, and that she was very happy. It was only after watching a Friends episode, years later (I was in my late 20s) that I realised that Toffy had in fact been put down. I was shocked, believing all this time that she had been on a farm and enjoying every minute of it!

Wendy

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

A neighbour's cat, Tabitha, got run over when I was about 4. While I was visiting them with my family, I said: "Poor Tabitha. She's probably spinning round on someone's wheel by now."

Rachel

When I was three or four, I secretly pulled my cat's tail to get it to meow onto a tape recorder. When the cat died several months later, I was convinced that it was because I had pulled his tail. I still felt guilty thinking about that poor cat, even years after learning about the digestive problem that actually killed him (and despite understanding that death by tail-pulling is not a possibility!) I think I finally stopped feeling this way at around 15 or 16.

guilt-ridden cat-lover

When my cat died I asked where he was and my dad said he died. I asked what that meant and he said it meant he had just stopped moving. So I thought when animals died they just completely ground to a halt and wouldn't move.

Razorness

I used to think that muesli was the same as hamster food. So I fed it to my hamster. For three weeks. It died. Something about condensed milk?

Lozza

When i was younger i had a pet rabbit called smokey. one morning when i came doen for breakfast mum told me dad had left the cage open and Smokey had run away but it was ok becasue he was off somewhere happily playing with other rabbits. I believed this as mum had no reason to lie, since she'd told me the truth about my goldfishes death. For weeks i was angry at my dad but eventually got over it. then a couple of weeks ago it suddenly dawned on me and i confronted mum and she finally confessed that smokey had infat died.

Anon

When my sister was younger she believed that all animals had the right to be warm, this included chickens. However, chickens were outside animals, and could not be let inside the house.
One particular day when it was extra windy, my sister decided that it was the perfect time to "warm" up our poor chicken. So she stood on the outside wall of our laundry room and held the chicken up to the heat vent. Slowly but surely the chicken took in more carbon monoxide fumes than one could handle at any given time.
That's one chicken that didn't take off running after it lost its head...

S2Aries

I used to believe there was a special heaven or hell for every single type of animal. But some only had a hell, like a pit bull, and others only had a heaven, like a dachshund (wiener dog for you people who don't know).

Anon

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

When I was 4 two of my cats disappeared... we lived by a lake and I was convinced Ginger and Stripey had gone fishing and liked it so much they stayed by the lake and lived happily ever after.

I only remembered and realised how silly that was when I was in my teens, doh.

em

I was told when I was about 7 that my dog was sick, so my Mother gave him to a friend who owned a farm so she'd have lots of space to run and play until she got better.

I was about 15 or so when I cracked the joke "bought the farm" and realized what really happened to my puppy.

Collin

I used to believe that when my animals died they would go to animal hevean. All the animals would get a long together up there and they would all become friends.

April

I had a pet worm that I found outside. I didn't know that worms had to stay moist, so I played with it drying it out. Then it just broke in half, and I tried to tape it back together but it didn't work. All the brown stuff leaked out. So I put it in a piece of paper and buried it in my backyard. I thought that after I buried it, a bird dug the body up and ate the remainds. I felt so horrible. I cried for so long. I still think a bird ate it because the paper isn't there.

Gigi from NY

When I was small, I had dozens and dozens of goldfish over different periods of time. When my fish died, I was sad, but when I got a new one I believed that it was simply the old one back from the dead (I named my goldfish the same thing every time: Sparkly :)

Crane

I used to believe that pylons had electricity running through them and used to get upset for the cows and sheep in the fields next to them, that they would get electrocuted and die

Emma

When I was three, I had a dog named Penny. She died of cancer and, since I was so young, my mother didn't have the heart to tell me. So she said that Penny went to live in a place where there were lots of other dogs and people to take care of them. I asked her if we could go visit Penny and she said maybe someday.

Years later, when I was 14, I was sitting in the car at the gas station while my mom filled up the tank when suddenly, Penny came to my mind. I thjought about why we had never gone to visit her when I was younger and only at that moment did I realize that she was dead. I cried for hours.

Amanda

When my Sister & I were young my Mother told us that the animals on laying on the side of the road were only sleeping (not dead). I always worried that the side of the road was not a good place for a nap because the animals could get hit by a car. I still like to think they are only sleeping.

Beffie