Your Pet Loss Stories

'My Dog Killed my Daughter's Best Friend's Guinea Pigs'

by Need Help

My Daughter's (age 10) best friend and her little Sister asked us to watch their two guinea pigs while they went on vacation, which we agreed to do. This evening our children had a sleepover at the grandparents, so my wife and I went to dinner with friends. When we arrived home, about an hour ago, the dog greeted us at the front door.

I immediately had a sinking feeling in my stomach, as the dog would have had to knock over the gate in order to reach the front door. Sure enough when I checked upstairs the guinea pigs cage was upturned and they were both dead. There was no blood and no sign of puncture wounds.

This combined with the dogs playful nature leads me to believe that the dog was curious, not malicious in his actions, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed these girl's pets.

I need help. My wife and I are devastated that this happened. How in the world do we explain to our children that our pet killed their friend's pets? More importantly, how do we adequately explain and apologize to the parents of these poor little girls that we allowed a member of our family to kill two members of theirs? Obviously, we're willing to replace the guinea pigs, but that will be small consolation to the poor girls.

We need your advice quickly. It's currently Friday night and the family arrives home on Monday.