Losing a pet is many kids’ first real grief. It hurts because you loved well. That part is worth keeping.

Grief of this kind arrives without any of the language adults use to prepare for it, and it is often waved off by people who mean well. The size of it makes sense, because an animal is woven into the ordinary hours of a day, so the absence turns up everywhere at once. What hurts is the attachment, and the attachment was not a mistake.

Let it take the time it takes. Keep something small and specific if that helps, a photograph or a name written somewhere. Talk about them with someone who knew them. It does not have to become a lesson to have meant something.