Heartwarming Story of a Child’s Understanding of Death and Burial through Animal Encounters

We had a little family tragedy. A small kitten entered our courtyard of a private house. Our son Nikita was the first to see it. He immediately shouted:

– Mommy, there is a small animal, let’s look!

Come over. We saw it. The kitten was very weak and probably sick. I didn’t let my son touch it. Still a street person. What if there is rabies or lichen? She carefully grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and took him to the house.

They put the kitten in a box and poured warm milk over it. He immediately moved greedily. We put a towel in the baby’s box for warmth and softness and left it on the porch.

I called the vet clinic and asked what could be done. The kitten was very weak.

Then they told me that an anthelmintic should be given and that the kitten must be vaccinated, but until then it is dangerous to touch the kitten, especially for a child.

But Nikita himself did not particularly bother him. I saw that he was not feeling well and it did not bother him.

Unfortunately, the kitten did not live to see the morning. Died. Apparently, he was still very sick or he was separated from his mother early. In the morning Nikita was the first to find him. He came running to my husband and I’s bedroom and said:

– Mom, the cat is not moving at all. I call him and call him, but he doesn’t answer.

I understood everything immediately. She took the box with the kitten out into the garden and tried to explain to her son what had happened.

“The cat was very sick and died. He can no longer eat, walk or play. It will lie there until it disappears completely.

Nikita was confused and depressed.

– And if he really wants to eat, for example, he can’t either? – the son asked hopefully.

– He doesn’t want it anymore. But we can make it so that then, after it disappears, it can appear in another place. To do this, we have to bury him,” I found out.

“No, I don’t want to bury him,” Nikita growled. – the fear and the dirt will lie down. And in general, how will he get out then?

Well, at this point I started to explain that the little body wouldn’t get out anymore, that the cat would turn into a cloud and fly over the rainbow.

The boy listened attentively, but I don’t think he understood anything. We buried the cat right in a box behind the fence. Nikita looked thoughtful for half a day, and then, apparently, he forgot and became cheerful.

A couple of days later we came to visit my mother-in-law. While I was chatting with her in the kitchen, Nikita saw that she had a chicken disinfecting in the sink. asked:

– Is this chicken dead?

– Dead. How do you know that? – the mother-in-law became cautious.

I had to tell her how the kitten died.

“It’s too early, of course, for him to have such an experience, but there’s nothing to be done,” Nikitin’s grandmother sighed knowingly.

“This chicken, Nikit, died on purpose so that we could eat it,” the mother-in-law tried to explain the death of the chicken a little awkwardly.

He nodded silently and thought.

At some point, we got distracted by discussing the soup recipe, and when the mother-in-law returned to the sink, the chicken carcass was no longer there.

– Where did the chicken go? – she folded her hands.

“Nikita took it away,” I thought immediately. – Let’s go out to the garden!

We ran out of the house and into the street. My instinct did not let me down.

My son was sitting in the garden, digging a hole in the ground with a stick. Beside him was a thawed carcass.

– What are you doing, son? – I asked Nikita.

– I am burying the chicken. Until she becomes a cloud and flies away to the rainbow like a cat,” explained the son.

“Ugh, Lord,” the mother-in-law laughed. – well, Nikita, this is for food!

“If we eat it, it won’t end on the rainbow,” Nikita answered rationally.

My mother-in-law looked at me, looking for support, and suddenly she understood herself.

– Nikita, the chicken will beat the rainbow, don’t worry! We’ll bury her shield and she’ll get there!

– Is there enough shield? – the son was skeptical.

“That’s enough,” I told him, marveling at my mother-in-law’s ingenuity.

So they convinced Nikita to give us the chicken. My mother-in-law washed him well, cut off the tip of the wing, and we buried him solemnly in the garden.

“What a great idea you came up with,” I said to my husband’s mother. “Maybe I wouldn’t have understood.”

– Yes, you understood more – you explained so well about death and burial. No drama whatsoever. Wait, it definitely won’t end with the chicken.

Turns out she was right! Over the next week, my son “buried” mosquitoes and flies, placing them carefully in several boxes.

And then one day, I forgot my passion for funeral rites. Now we are already laughing as he buried a whole chicken carcass!

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