Are you kidding me?

My sweet little girl loves to read. She also loves dogs. She really loves to read books about dogs. So this year, Santa brought her this book:



Is not that the sweetest dog on the cover of that book? It looks like the perfect book for a little girl who loves dogs, doesn't it? Of course Santa would get it for her. Santa knew my sweet little girl would love that book about that sweet little puppy named Kitty.

And she did love that book...until last night. As I was walking past her room, I heard, "Mmmom." I stuck my head in and said in my sweetest, most understanding mommy voice said, "You should be sleeping!! Why are you still awake at this hour? You have to stop going to bed so late. I'm getting really tired of this."

And then she said, "Kitty died."

What the H? Kitty died?

"What do you mean 'Kitty died'?"

She said, through sobs, "Kitty died and I'm really sad about it. I really liked Kitty."

Seriously? How could an author who writes books for children in grades 3-5 kill off the dog? And Kitty didn't "just die". No, Kitty, who had previously been left to starve but was nursed back to health by a boy who was afraid of dogs because he had been attacked by a pack of rabid dogs...so now my sweet girl is really attached to him, didn't just die. Kitty died in a horribly tragic accident. He didn't die of old age or of illness. He didn't get hit by a car, which would have been tragic enough. No, you know how Kitty died? He was squashed flat when a truck load of pipes was dumped on him. The dog was crushed by pipes.

Really? Really.

Trying to hide my horror, but not doing a very good job of it, I said, "Oh my goodness! Why would the author do that? Well, I'm sure it has a happy ending."

Then she said, with more than a hint of sarcasm, "Happy ending? How can there be a happy ending? Is the dog going to come back to life?"

And then my sweet little girl said through more tears, "Why would Santa bring me such a sad book? I can't believe he wouldn't know that book would make me sad. Why would he do that?"

Why would Santa do that? I'll tell you why. Normally Santa researches everything she he buys before he buys it. Santa reads reviews on Amazon for every book and toy he gives to all the precious little children of the world. This year, however, Santa made an unplanned stop at Barnes and Noble one night and left his smartphone in the sleigh so he couldn't use his handy Amazon app to research the book before he bought it. By the time Christmas eve rolled around, Santa was so busy delivering gifts that he forgot he hadn't researched this book. Had Santa researched this sweet-looking little book, he would have learned from the reviews titled, "Don't Buy This Book If You Have A Sensitive Child!" that this was not the book to buy for a sensitive child (who loves dogs). Santa, I'm certain, feels just horrible about this mistake. I'm sure it will never happen again.

But at least Santa is taking the heat for this one. My girls knows her mother would never be so insensitive.