Paw Prints on My Heart
When a family pet dies, a child is often handed a softened word and left alone with a very big feeling.
Sam and Biscuit have a whole good life together — digging, snoring, stealing socks. And then Biscuit gets old, and gets sick, and dies. The book says so plainly, because a child who is not told plainly fills the gap with something worse.
- Says died, not “went to sleep” or “went away”
- Makes it clear it was nobody’s fault — not the child’s, not anyone’s
- Lets Sam be angry as well as sad, without correcting him
- Ends with remembering, not with a replacement puppy
40 pages · ages 4–8 · read together, out loud.
Sad, angry, and allowed to be both
Written to be read on the worst week, by an adult who is also upset.
The whole good life first
Before anything else, the book spends time on what made Biscuit Biscuit — the digging, the snoring, the socks. Grief makes more sense to a child when the love is on the page first.
Nobody’s fault
Children reach for blame, usually their own. The story says outright that it was not Sam’s fault, and does not move on until it has.
Laughing and missing, same day
Sam learns that a funny memory is not a betrayal. It is one of the more useful things a grieving child can be told, and it is easier to hear in a story.
A book to read on a hard evening
- Plain language — no euphemisms a child can misread as “coming back”
- Anger included — not just sadness, and not corrected
- No blame — stated clearly, more than once
- Room to remember — the ending is about keeping, not replacing
- Short enough — for a child who cannot sit with it for long
For the family in the first week
Written for parents and grandparents who have to explain something they are struggling with themselves, and for teachers and vets who are asked to recommend something.
There is a companion volume for cats, A Cat-Shaped Space, and a keepsake memory book, Forever My Dog, for the grown-ups in the house.
View on AmazonMore from Gentle Goodbyes
Same voice, same honesty — for the pet the family actually had.
A Cat-Shaped Space
The companion volume, for a cat — Nell, Pepper, and the very particular quiet a cat leaves behind.
Forever My Dog
A memory book and keepsake for the adults: photos, stories, milestones and remembrance pages.
All the pet books
Keepsakes, training, care planners and memorial books for every stage of a pet’s life.