surrogate

Shortly before the Bigguy's fifth birthday, the in-laws had to put the family dog to sleep. They have another dog, but Buddy was Bigguy's best-friend on four legs. It was very hard on Bigguy, and very hard on us. First, we loved buddy, he was family, second, no one should EVER have to explain mortality to a small child. We have been fielding some dificult questions since then, and doing our best to answer honestly and truthfully, even if that means answering the dreaded "I don't know." In an attempt to lessen Bigguy's pain, and make things easier on os, one of his birthday gifts from us was a stuffed black-lab puppy he named 'Buddy Poe'. Bigguy has a collection of stuffed Rotts and Dobermans, which are his Poe dogs, and they all have assigned names and tittles in the Poe family, Buddy is the only Lab. Having the stuffed dog has done wonders, but has also led to some interesting conversations along the lines of:"Momma, I don't ever want you to die, and I don't want to die, but you said everyone dies eventually, I want you to die before me so I can have a new mommy." "Do you want a new Mommy?" "Only if you die first, then I will need a new mommy, just like I got a new buddy!"
Kids, what ya gonna do?