animals

this is not my own belief
When I was babysitting for a catholic family, their 4-year-old boy once strated talking about a rat in the garage. He said: "We had a big rat in the garage, and then Daddy shot the rat with his shotgun, and then the rat died and went up to Heaven." We (his older siblings and me) tried to convince him that rats can´t go to heaven, but he insisted on it. Finally he said: "OK, but cats and dogs always go to heaven, because they are good."

estonian au-pair

i used to belive that if you eat a slug you whould always have the slime that slugs have dripping from every hole in your body, then my dog eat one i thought he was going to die.

Kylie

When I was a child, I understood that a dead animal was gone forever and never coming back; I also knew that "put to sleep" meant the pet had to be euthanized because it was sick or injured. However, I do have a distinct memory of believing that animals went to heaven after they died--bodies and all! So it was puzzling to me that dead animals on the roadside didn't vanish into thin air, or that skeletons of animals could be dug up later on.

Vivienne

I believed that all Cats were female, and all Dogs were male, and wondered why they hated each other, since they had babies (puppies and kittens) together.

Andrew Wade

When I was around 4 years old I always wondered how dinosaurs died off. I also wondered where did shoes come from. You never see any shoe factories, if you've noticed. So I assumed wrongly that the dinosaurs went extinct because they shrunk down and turned into shoes, then people come because we now had shoes.

Cyla

My mother told me that my cat had gone to live with an old lady who needed a cat to take care of her.

I sincerely believed her for a long time. As I grew up, it turned into a sort of a resentment.

Then she told me it wasn't true, quite a few years later, and that the cat actually met a rather horrible death.

I didn't know what to feel.

Beregon

i used to believe that when an animal died it would return years later. i was so devastated when my sister told me my dog wasnt coming back :(

R.I.P. Rocko

When my dog died, I was convinced she was still alive, just "Holding her breath!" I thought that dieing meant you just stopped breathing; I had no clue about the heart needing to beat...

Hey, I was only five!

*Holds breath* I'm dead!

When I was 6, my mom took my sister and I on a trip. When I came back, 20-some of our barn cats were gone and only a few remained. My father said he put an ad in the paper and a bunch of really nice people came and adopted them. Much later in life I found out he 'donated' them to the university for disection and experiments.

Delaine

When I was about six years old, I had a neighbor and we were really good friends. I used to go to her house everyday. Her dog just died and we were both finding out about death. We had this big huge idea to write letters to dead people/animals.We were going to take them to heaven with us. If you only knew how many hours we spent in her basement writing letters to her dead dog!

xXxLeighxXx

I had a cat named Rajaa (like in Aladdin) whom I loved with all my heart, dispite the scars and scratch marks on my body. My mother and I are not religious and very open so naturally when my cat died she told me she had sent him to a nice lesbian couple on a ranch. I believed that until I was 13 and I am now 15. For years I always laughed at the picture of the things my poor kitty would see.

Emily, California

When I was really little, my aunt's dog died. I didn't know what death was, I just knew the person went away and it was sad. And they couldn't ever be brought back. So when the dog died, I imagined Woody slipping through the floor until only his head was above the ground, and my aunt was crying, and then he went under. I don't know how I got that idea....

Laurel

When I was about 7 years old I had a little tiny parakeet named Sky. One day he wasn't looking too good but my brother had karate so I had to go to his karate with my mom. I told my mom that we needed to take him to the 'doctor' but she wouldn't stand for it. When I came back from karate I saw my bird laying on the bottom of his cage. I ran and told my mom that Sky was fine, he just needed some rest before he felt better and immediately explained that he was sleeping soundly.
My mother just looked at me sadly and told me we had to make him a bed ( which was a checkbox) and let him 'sleep' in the ground for a while. I suddenly realized what had happened ( my mom told me the same thing when my Grandma died earlier that year)and I cried a long time.

Gilda

This isn't my own belief but my 4 year old cousins (She did this 2 years ago for a 6 month span). When her older sister's hamster died and they buried it in the yard my little cousin didn't understand so everyday would go outside and stand over the hamsters grave and scream ,"Hammy! Hammy Hampster!! Come out!! Where are you!!"

Echo

i used to think that if ur animal died and u diddnt feed him after he died hed come back to eat u.

crazygirl

I owned three fish when I was seven, but two of them died before the third one.
I still put enough fish food in for three, though, because I thought the food would float up to Heaven to feed the dead ones.

Anon

When my dad and uncle went duck hunting, they'd always clean the ducks themselves. I went outside one day, and I saw the dead ducks just laying there. I picked one up, and for some reason I thought it was talking to me. I made myself think it said it loved me (Even though it was dead...and a duck) then I set it down and ran back to the house. when I got to the stairs, I turned around and I made myself think I could hear it say "I'll always love you!" so then I cried for a long while...Yeah, I have a horribly overactive head.

EmAufder

once, when i was requested to take out the trash, i was frightened by an possum ... it was lying there on the ground, apparently dead, between me the garbage destination ... I was afraid to get closer because I had heard about how they pretend to be dead...so I didn't believe this one was really dead, but it was...

Tim Dugan

i used to think when a human died it turned to a dog then squirl then lizard and every animal so every pet i had(ALOT) were all named frank or bob or lidia

brought up confused

Until I was around 8, I thought cows were killed nicely!

Duncan