My son will be 4 in July. Two months ago, we brought a cat into our home. He played with the cat and loved the cat, and the majority of his interactions with the cat were supervised. Today he woke before I did and went into our laundry room where he helps with putting clothes into the dryer. He put the cat into the dryer and turned it on. When I found the cat, he was on the floor in front of the dryer and had already passed away. It appeared he was wet and there was a spray bottle with soapy water and the top off on top of the dryer. The bottle is one I made for him so he could "help" me clean. From what I can tell, he tried to "clean" the cat by spraying him with the water, then putting him in the dryer. I'm sure my son didn't know he would kill his cat, but I'm beside myself with grief and not sure how to handle making sure he knows what he did was wrong. I told him, "what you did hurt the kitty, now kitty is gone to heaven." I more yelled it when I found the cat, I admit, I was very upset, I've never had a pet die of unnatural causes and never actually seen one of my pets dead. I'm not getting another animal. Can someone tell me if he's too young to understand death? How should I handle this? I know it was an accident, but I can't help but feel a bit of "what's wrong with you?" as I look at him knowing what happened...my heart is just broken. I have three other children who don't know yet that their cat is gone. I know I can't tell them what really happened, it's too gruesome, so should I tell them it ran away, or passed away and leave out the details? Thank you.