All Dogs Go to Heaven

cbr10bingo… Two heads are better than one

Even though it’s called two heads are better than one, I went with three heads.  I enlisted the help of my two nieces.  Olivia is eight and Nora is six.  They’re awesome, and they love dogs, and they love reading.

This review is both happy and sad.  We read this book because I lost my little guy Ernie this spring.  It was the hardest thing I’ve had to go through in a long long time.

He was a sweet, loving, and batshit crazy little ball of fluff.  I loved him so much, and so did the girls.  I could load up this post with pictures of the little man, but I won’t.  Well, maybe just a few more…

This was part of our Christmas photo shoot last year.  My boys loved the girls, and the feeling was mutual.  Oscar is my other little man, and he’s doing just fine by the way.

After we lost Ernie, the girls were devastated (along with me).  It took me months to get myself together.  I tried to keep talking about him with the girls to let them know that it was ok to be sad, and that I always wanted them to remember him.

Anyway, I found this great book on Amazon, and over the

I weekend the three of us read it together.

I told Olivia and Nora that I got a book about losing a dog that I wanted us all to read together.  She leafed through it on my table and got sad because there weren’t any pictures of Ernie in it.  So… we just cut out a picture of Ernie and put him in the book!

So anyway, we sat down and read this book.  Olivia and I took turns reading pages.  Nora’s still working on her reading skills, so she was the page flipper.

The basic story is about a boy whose 15 year old dog Koko dies.  The little boy is super sad and sleeps with Koko’s bone under his pillow.  A gassy angel dog named Buster comes to the boy’s room to pick up Koko’s bone and bring it to him.  The boy (I can’t remember his name, only the dogs were important for me) hopped on Buster’s back and flew to doggy paradise.

The little boy met up with Koko and saw all the other happy dogs, cats, birds, gerbils, whatever that were waiting for their owners at the end of the rainbow bridge.

I only cried like four times while we were reading it.  I had to keep telling the girls that it’s ok to be sad and it’s really good to remember lost loved ones.

Both girls loved the book, and we had a really nice (if tear-filled) time reading it together.

After we finished, the girls and I talked about what our favorite parts were.

My favorite part was called “pick up day”.  It’s when people who have passed away come up to pet paradise and pick up their pets.  Then they cross over the rainbow bridge together into heaven.

Olivia’s favorite part was when they walked over the bridge to get to heaven.

I told the girls that one day we’d be reunited with our pets (including Ernie) again, but it wouldn’t be for a long long time.

Nora’s favorite part was when the little boy got a gassy new dog at the end.  They named him Buster after the gassy angel dog.

I’m so glad we read this book together.  I loved Ernie and I want to keep his memory alive, both for me and the girls.  Here are some more cute shots of my little man (and his old man brother).