Moms Talk: What Do You Do When Your Kid's Pet Dies?

Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council of experts and smart moms take your questions, give advice and share solutions. Birmingham Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for mothers and their families here in Birmingham.

Remember that time little Johnny won the goldfish at the carnival and you brought it home and it died two days later? (Well, two days if you're lucky – ours lasted six hours.) How did you help your kids cope with the loss?

Did you bury it ceremoniously in the back yard under a wooden cross? Tie some balloons to it and sent it off in an aerial burial (like the dwarf hamster in this video)? Deliver a heartfelt eulogy in the bathroom, then watch it swirl into the afterlife?

Or did you replace the dead pet before anybody noticed, just to save your kids the heartbreak?

And what about pets who have really become a part of the family? Losing a beloved dog, cat or other pet can be extremely difficult for children – how do you help them cope with the loss?