Death is complicated. It's scary and upsetting. It is no wonder that many children are afraid of death or confused it. Unfortunately, death is a huge part of life. For children and young people, especially those with certain additional needs which mean they take things very literally, death can be very confusing because of the way death is talked out.

For example, telling a child their pet is being 'put to sleep' can be terrifying for them because they think that what has happened to their beloved pet is going to happen to them when they go to sleep. Or if their dog has 'gone over the rainbow bridge' why don't they just go and find the bridge, walk over it and join their pet? It's just a bridge after all, we've all been over bridges.

This confusion about what has happened to their pets can be very upsetting and make it harder to process what has happened because there are so many unanswered questions.

Because of this, we have written a story called 'Pepper's last days'. In the story we explore the last days of Pepper including his euthanasia, cremation and how the family manage their grief afterwards.

This story aims to help prepare families for the approaching death of a pet so they understand the process and what will happened so they can prepare themselves and think about ways to manage their grief after their passing.  

This story can be watched as a free video below. If you wish to purchase a copy of the booklet of Pepper's last days, the booklet is available to purchase in our shop.