By Cory Bilicko
Arts and Entertainment Writer
The loss of a pet can be a tragic one for most of us, but, for many children, it might also be the very first encounter with a significant death. How parents and their children endure and address the death of a dog, cat or pot-bellied pig can have an extensive bearing on how kids assimilate and cope with loss and bereavement in the future.
Bill Cochran works as a creative director at a major advertising agency in Dallas, Texas, where he also performs with an improvisational comedy troupe. He had never written a children’s book when his golden retriever Mo died, and her passing left him devastated.
“I remember dropping food on the floor the first time I came home after my dog died. There was no immediate jingle of her collar as she’d dash for the scraps. I can’t tell you how empty that made me feel,” Cochran says. “I really thought something was wrong with me. I just could not stop crying.”
But he discovered a way to redirect his grief and personal turmoil.
Somehow, he says, he realized she will always be part of him because she had touched his life in so many ways and “though she was gone, nothing could ever truly take her away from me. That thought filled my heart with a beautiful sense of calm.”
He felt inspired to share that message and decided a children’s book was the right vehicle to do so. The Forever Dog, charmingly illustrated by Dan Andreasen, is a testament to it.
In the story, young Mike has had Corky since the dog was seven weeks old, and the duo do everything together. They take walks, play fetch, and tell jokes. Corky even sleeps on Mike’s head at night. They eventually make a plan, The Forever Plan, to stay together always.
The plan seems a joyous one until the day Mike returns from school to find out from his mom that Corky is gravely ill with a blood disease. Soon after, the pet dies, and Mike, of course, is shocked, then irreconcilable, then angry at Corky for breaking their promise.
Fortunately, Mike has the kind of storybook mom who seems to know just the right things to say, and she enlightens her son with an outlook on Corky’s death that so many of us, if we’re lucky, have ourselves reached. “Corky the dog had to go away. But Corky your best friend will be with you forever,” she tells him.
Though it’s a sentiment that is nothing new in fiction and popular entertainment, negotiating the terms of death in a youngster-friendly manner is always going to be tough territory for children’s book authors. First-timer Cochran hits all the right notes.
The Forever Dog is sensitive without too much sap; an earnest book about a little boy’s dog dying can’t avoid some watery-eyed moments.
Andreasen’s illustrations, though delicate and accessible, are minimal enough so that the focus is on Mike, his relationship and his feelings, and the artist certainly knows how to draw a cute, lovable pup.
Facing death and struggling to cope with it is a challenge we’ll always encounter, but this book is a recommendable first step in the process.
The Forever Dog is available from HarperCollins Children’s Books. Go to www.harpercollinschildrens.com for more information.
