pet death: lies and legends

when a friend of mine's dog got run over, his parents instead told him that 'Lucky' had been selected to be a special police dog!

a friend of mine tells a story about his dog going missing when he was a kid, and a few months later he was in the park and saw a bunch of rougher lads throwing sticks for it. he tried to call it back but it wouldn't respond to its name, and the guys were calling it "aids" as it happily trotted along with them.

our fish died recently. I was upfront about it. at first V didn't care/it didn't register then the next day she cried about it a little, that she missed him. now I think she's forgotten about it entirely.

Beats has just turned 6 and shes already had 3 cats, a dog and a goldfish die. We're very upfront about it but I wonder if that's best. It always feels like there's a rush to grab any opportunity to teach your kid about death but why? I guess the death questions start early.

we've had relatives die so we've had to talk about it a bit, altho I doubt she fully grasps the concept. We have told her that everybody dies eventually. Except Superman. he can't die.

Oh god for when this happens.