There Is No Farm: Kids Guide To Understanding Euthanasia (Signed Copy)

There Is No Farm: Kids Guide To Understanding Euthanasia... Buddy Is Not On A Farm. Buddy Is Somewhere Specific.

Buddy did not go to a farm. Buddy is not running around on a big property with other dogs in conditions Buddy would have loved had Buddy been capable of going there. Buddy went somewhere specific, and this book explains where that somewhere is, what the process looked like, and why the farm was a kindness-shaped lie that you are now old enough to receive the truth version of. The truth version is illustrated with cartoon art and the measured, honest tone of a guide that has decided the farm story has done its job and the time for the farm story is over.

This adult parody book is a children's guide to euthanasia that uses the pet experience to address what all the farm versions were protecting us from. It is dark and it is also funny in the way that only extremely honest things can be funny once you're old enough for the honesty. Buddy was loved. Buddy's condition was such that a decision was made. The decision was called something kind in front of children. This book calls it what it is. Buddy is not coming back. The farm was fiction. The guide provides the non-fiction.

This Book IS For:

• Adults who were told the farm story as children and later received the update and had complicated feelings about the update
• Parents who have decided their children are ready for the honest version and want an illustrated guide to deliver it
• Fans of extremely dark humor that is simultaneously funny and accurate about something real and sad
• Gift-givers who want to acknowledge a pet loss situation with something more honest than a sympathy card

This Book Is NOT For:

• Children who are still on the farm version and whose parents have decided they should stay there a while longer
• Readers who find the farm story appropriate at any age and believe the honest version is unnecessarily harsh
• Anyone currently navigating an active pet situation who doesn't have the emotional margin for this framing right now
• People who told the farm story and need it to remain unexamined for family harmony reasons

Appropriate For:

• Pet loss gifts... more honest than a sympathy card and more useful than a "rainbow bridge" poem
• White elephant exchanges where someone in the group has recently received the adult update on the farm story
• Gag gifts for veterinary professionals who have the farm conversation regularly and need to laugh about it
• Anyone who is old enough to receive the honest version and young enough to remember that once they weren't

Why Buy This

The farm story has served millions of children across generations and costs nothing to tell. This book, which costs slightly more than nothing, provides the follow-up that the farm story was deferring. The follow-up is illustrated. The follow-up is honest about where Buddy went, what the word is for what happened to Buddy, and why the farm was a protective fiction rather than a geographic location. Buddy would have loved a farm. Buddy didn't go to one. The guide is here now.

Buy it for someone who was told the farm story and would appreciate the illustrated update. Buy it for a veterinarian who has the real conversation repeatedly and needs a book that acknowledges both versions exist. Buy it for yourself, if you were told about a farm once, and have since known, and have held both stories simultaneously for long enough that the dark humor is what's left. Buddy was loved. There was no farm. The book explains the rest.