Tragedy

Today was a tragic and sad, sad day for our family.  I can't tell you how much my boys have loved our newest pet, Chewy, always playing with him and loving him.  Well, Danny took him out of his cage today and handed him over to Maggie - of course she bit him and that was the end of Chewy.  Cole cried for an hour and half - and it wasn't just crying - it was a "wailing."  So sad for Cole.  Hunter was devastated too - he started to sob when he was told.  The sad thing is that Danny had no idea what went wrong - nor does the statement "Chewy died" mean anything to him.  It was hard to be angry with Maggie too, since she was handed the little guy.  I found myself going through all the emotions of grief: denial, anger, sadness, mourning, acceptance... I think there are 7 steps - but I'm still stuck on the mourning part.  It was really sad to see the lifeless little guy and to think about how fragile our little spirits are.  It was especially hard to see my boys' broken hearts.  Cole constantly reminds us and his friends who have stopped by that "at least Chewy's still alive in heaven."  Another tender moment during this ordeal was while I was hugging Cole and we just sobbed together.  He said, "he was my 2nd most favoritist thing in the whole world!" I asked him what was his first and I honestly thought he would say his blankie, but his quick and tear filled response was, "you guys" (meaning mom and dad).

::sigh::