Karina the Camel

A few weeks ago the kids stayed the night at my parents.  The next morning at breakfast there was an article in the newspaper about the camel at our local zoo.  She was very old and had become extremely arthritic and had developed sores.  In short they had to euthanize the camel.  Well Elizabeth saw the picture and asked Ima what it was about and she told her that the camel was leaving the zoo.  I had seen the article as well and anticipated lots of questions.  We went to pick the kids up and ran into town to do some errands.  The entire trip she kept asking where the camel was going.  The article had also said that there were no plans to replace the camel at this time.  I knew the next trip to the zoo would lead us by an empty camel exhibit.  I finally reached my limit of creative answers and turned to the truth.  I crawled in the back seat with her and held her hands and explained that the camel was very sick and that she died, but that she was in heaven now and it is so much better for her there.  Oh the tears...she cried and cried.  I focused on the healing that happens in heaven and that she is in a better place now.  She is so tenderhearted when it comes to animals.  I asked her if she would like to make a card when we got home to send to the zoo to say goodbye to the camel.  She thought that sounded like a great idea!  I grabbed a piece of card stock and outlined a camel and gave her the crayons.  She colored a beautiful multi-colored camel, all in the lines - it really was precious!  I am really kicking myself for not taking a picture of it.  I told her I would write whatever she wanted to say.  "Bye Camel - Love You" was what she wanted.  We folded it up and mailed it to the zoo.

Yesterday was our first trip since the camel's passing and on the way there she said, "I am a little sad about the camel but not too sad.  It is is heaven with Gunner right mommy?"  We got to the camel's exhibit and they had relocated the emus to that area.  The emus are one of Elizabeth's favorites and we hadn't seen them in a while due to construction so she was thrilled to see all three of them at once.

Today she got a letter in the mail from the zoo.  It was a thank-you for her nice card to the camel.  Her eyes lit up :)  At lunch she asked me if camels like to be petted.  I said I didn't know for sure.  Her response, "Mommy, when I go to heaven I am going to pet all of the camels and Gunner."  This girl just melts my heart!