Mom and Dad were trying to console Susie, whose dog, Skipper, had recently died. The little girl sat curled up on the couch, clutching Skipper\u2019s old collar so tightly her knuckles had turned white. The house felt strangely empty without the sound of paws tapping across the floor or the familiar bark at the mailman every afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know,\u201d Mom said softly, brushing Susie\u2019s hair back from her tear-streaked face, \u201cit\u2019s not so bad. Skipper\u2019s probably up in Heaven right now, having a grand old time with God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad nodded gently. \u201cRunning through fields, chasing squirrels, eating all the treats he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a moment, Susie stopped crying. She stared at them with those serious little eyes children get when they are thinking far harder than adults expect.<\/p>\n
Then she asked quietly, \u201cWhat would God want with a dead dog?\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
Mom opened her mouth, then closed it again. Dad suddenly became very interested in straightening a magazine on the coffee table. Neither of them had an answer, because sometimes children ask the kind of questions that make grown-ups realize how little they truly understand themselves.<\/p>\n
But after a few seconds, Susie hugged the collar tighter and whispered, \u201cI hope He\u2019s being nice to Skipper.\u201d<\/p>\n
And somehow, that broke their hearts all over again.<\/p>\n
An 8-year-old wrote the following about grandparents:
\nGrandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of her own.<\/p>\n
They like other people\u2019s. A grandfather is a man and a grandmother is a lady! Grandparents don\u2019t have to do anything except be there when we come to see them\u2026 They are so old they shouldn\u2019t play hard or run.<\/p>\n
It is good if they drive us to the shops and give us money. When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars. They show us and talk to us about the color of the flowers and also why we shouldn\u2019t step on \u201ccracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t say, \u201cHurry up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Usually grandmothers are fat but not too fat to tie your shoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mom and Dad were trying to console Susie, whose dog, Skipper, had recently died. The little girl sat curled up on the couch, clutching Skipper\u2019s old collar so tightly her knuckles had turned white. The house felt strangely empty without the sound of paws tapping across the floor or the familiar bark at the mailman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales"],"yoast_head":"\n