RIP mae

my parent's dog died several weeks ago. somehow we had put off telling bee about it until just today. last year, their other dog died as well and bee was very upset by it. we had to have the same conversation about the dog for weeks. "no, she won't be back" and "her body stopped working" we things we heard ourselves saying again and again. she can be very sensitive and really feels and processes things, sometimes for stretches of time. 

needless to say we were not looking forward to telling her about the other dog. but today we were literally forced to do the deed. bee was set to spend some time with the grandparents so we had two choices. we could bite the bullet and tell her about the dog or just ignore the whole thing and hope she didn't notice that the dog was gone. i know it is insane but a tiny part of me actually thought about option number two. 

anyhow, after a nice quiet painting project i took a deep breath and dropped the bomb. here is how it went:

me: i have some bad news to tell you.

bee: what? (big wondering eyes looking at me)

me: well, you know gramma and grampa's dog mae? well, she died. 

bee: (silence)

me: do you know what that means?

bee: (excited) they can get a new dog!

some amount of thoughtful conversation followed: how mae won't be back and how gramma and grampa are pretty sad. but basically bee just wanted to excitedly discuss what options they had for a new pet. maybe a dog! a cat! 2 cats!

so, crisis averted, i guess. some part of us thinks that the shit will hit the fan sometime and we may have to have those hard talks. but for now i'll take it. this is one time in parenting where the best possible scenario prevailed.