animals

My dog was knocked down and killed by a car when I was about 8 and my dad took it to his work to be 'buried'.
I imagined my dad digging a hole and placing poor 'Prince'in the ground with maybe a tear in his eye and a short prayer.
My dad however, worked for the local cleansing department, his job was to burn the rubbish.
It took me up until I was about 25 to work out that my poor dog had been thrown in the fire with the rubbish and cremated.
The same fate met my rabbit when it died.
Parents eh!

CJ

I used to believe that when my cats would die, they would turn into a butterfly. So all my childhood I spendt thinking how sad of a thing butterflies were......

ShannonE

"Why is that racoon laying by the garage? And another one! A baby one!"
"Uhm.. they're sleeping. Yeah, so we had better go away before htey wake."
"But their eyes are open!"
"Racoons are special animals, they're noctournal, silly. Go inside now."

Not knowing what noctournal meant but not wanting to seem any less knowledgible, I just agreed and acted to understand.

Jules

When I was young, we had a dog named Charlie. Charlie was old and my mom told me we were sending him to "the farm" to play with other dogs. I believed this until I was about 18! I guess it just sounded really nice.

Jill

I used to believe that I could pray for any animal that I cared for that passed away to go to heaven. I thought if I did this, one day, when I went to heaven, I'd have all of my animal friends there to meet me, but if I couldn't pray for too many because for each one, that took part of my place in heaven and if I prayed for to many, I'd never make it to heaven at all because I'd have given them all of my place there.

sunray117

My friend's mom told my friend's little sister thatI when a dog died, it went to a retirement home.

ellen

One day when I was like 7 my VERY old dog went under the house and she never came out and so after a few days I asked my parents, "What happened to Girlfriend?" and my mom said that she went on vacation and that she wasn't going to come home, I got all sad and so it was my dad's turn to tell me a bedtime story so he came into my room and he told me that she had really died

pie is my name eating myself is my game

There was a time when I thought euthanasia was when veteranarians turned other animals into fish.

Catfish

One day my pet goldfish had died and I had to flush him down the tiolet into the sewers. An idea sprung up ni my head. If a lot of pet fish die each day and are flushed, what would happen at the sewage treatment factory? I would think that the waste would be on a conveyer belt and somebody would be categorizing waste. They would be like "Log.. Log.. Oh! Another goldfish! This is my lucky day!"
I still kind of wonder about that today.

Wendell

I used to believe that when my rat (Ms Peaches) died that she came back as a bird that flew into our house... I still believe it now

Gabrielle

When I was little my biggest fear was that my beloved stuffed animals wouldn't come to heaven with me when I died. Every year for my birthday until I was about nine, I wished for that.

Anon

we had lots of animals around the house and still do. one time, my gran's old dog died naturally.of course, i was sad as Tikka wasn't there anymore...untill my father told me she had gone to Cyprus. thing is, he travelled alot and one time,he had to go to Cyprus! i was petrified that he would never come back!

sad childhood

When I was aged around 4 or 5 I had a dog that was completely insane. Well, one day he dissapeared. My Mom and Dad told me and my sister that they had taken him to a farm somewhere. I remeber asking my parents if they knew how Bruce (Crazy dog) was doing. They usually said they didn't know. Not until a few weeks ago did I find out that my Dad took him and shot him. I wasn't really devastaded, mainly because Bruce was toatlly crazy. Sad thing is, my parents decided to wait until I was 15 to tell me this...

Robyn Dunbar (Canada)

My parents told me when I was about 5 that roadkill animals weren't dead, they were actually sleeping. I believed this until I was about 10.

Anon

When I was little, I believed that animals died the way they did in the cartoons - they just flopped down on their backs and put their feet in the air.

I firmly believed that until one day. I saw a squirrel run across the street and get hit by a minivan doing over fifty (in the suburbs). Needless to say, it has remained one of my most vivid memories.

Jessica Tinch

I used to believe that if you put salt on a dead fly it would make the fly come back to life.

Cody

I used to believe that if you squeezed your fist very,very tightly you could not be stung by bees. Worked! Didn't work for wasps and hornets.

Ron

After seeing "All Dogs Go to Heaven", I was convinced that when dogs died, that's really where they went. As if they had their own special Doggy Heaven or something. I didn't stop believing that till I was about eleven. I'm fifteen now.

Anon

I was given a hush puppy in a restaurant when I was very young and didn't understand what it was. I thought it was a puppy someone had killed and 'hushed' so I didn't want it.. I exclaimed loudly in the restaurant, "him dead!". I'm told they all laughed at me... for good reason I guess!

blonnie

When I was 10 my Mother's dog passed away. My Mom told me that she had just died at home in her sleep and that my Dad and Grampy brought her to the vet to be buried. (She didnt want to tell me that they had to make the hard decision to put her to sleep--they didnt want me blaming them for her death). When I was 20 years old my Mom was talking to my friend about her old dog and made the statement, "When we had Tammy put to sleep" I was mortified! I wouldnt have been upset that she was put to sleep because death was death to me, but the fact that for 10 years I believed she died underneith the dining room table and had to be brought to the doctors" My Mom had no idea I still believed that years later.

Nikki