Yes, just tonight, I've done it. I, the nicest and kindest of animal-loving hoomans on this planet, have dispatched an innocent dog. In my WIP, of course. It wasn't my MC's dog, and it wasn't onscreen. But it was--- until I gave it food poisoning murderously intended for a secondary (human) character--- a perfectly good, well-behaved Irish setter. Only thing anyone could have against him was that he counter-surfed, but why should that earn him a sentence of death? O Plot, you grim reaper of characters great and small! What a cruel executioner you are! So now, you Forumites, fess up. Who among you have broken the great taboo and sent your characters' pets prematurely over the Rainbow Bridge? You're among friends here. Nobody will tell . . .
Not a dog, no. Killed a parrot once (shotgun) in a long-forgotten story before he (she?) could spill the beans.
Kevin McKinley has a dark secret that tortures him a decade later. When he was 14, he ran over two yapping dogs who had taken to running around the neighborhood irritating pedestrians, and their owners would pull the race card when confronted. To this day, he considers himself a disgusting murderer. "May as well have ran over two innocent children." In another story, a historical mystery, Otto discovers a dog in the middle of town dead with its throat slit. Upon examination and asking questions, he learns it was meant as a threatening message to the dog's owners.
I haven't killed one yet, but I did shoot one (WIP wise of course). Someday it will probably happen and I will cry, but I'll do it anyway.
I'm a big wuss. I gave a 12-year-old character a pet alien rabbit (more a carnivorous jackalope really) and it's still alive when they're in their forties. Pretty sure this horrible animal is going to be the longest-lived thing in the universe just because I can't bear to kill it. In an older project I actually killed a whole room full o' assorted animals but - crucially - one of the main characters had Jesus powers and he brought them all back to life like two chapters later.
I killed a dog on-screen. She was old, and the character was worried about her from the beginning of the book, so I don't think it would be a surprise to any readers. I needed to hurt the character for plot purposes, and there are few things more painful to an animal lover than a pet dying. I killed several dogs off-screen in another book - the plot was about her finding a cure for the disease that killed them. Gratuitous animal deaths piss me off as a reader, especially ones used for shock. But when it has a purpose? Nah. Fill yer boots.
I was going to kill Trundle.. my scout dog in 'Code of Honour' (that is the sequel to After the Wave, which is only partly written) but I decided against it. Instead his handler goes berserk and kills the enemy fire team responsible for Trundle's wounding before carrying him back to base, where he punches out an officer who tells him that "its just a dog" . Trundle is treated, recovers, and at the end of the book both he and his handler retire with honor to 'the farm' (a place for wounded soldiers to go when they retire).
I might kill off several dogs and horses. Corinna loses one of her pets, the mercenaries lose several of their horses in a battle, and a family dog dies of old age.
I have a dog character in my WIP. It is instrumental in one character learning to trust another. And I think I’m probably going to have to kill it so the character can realise he can trust others without the dog. I have been wrestling with whether to imply that the dog died, let the character develop on that basis, and then have an emotional reunion later when it transpires that the dog actually survived.
Thanks The basic premise goes like this. The character in question is autistic and is struggling to form a relationship with another character who is neurotypical. He does, however, form a relationship with the other character's dog. The dog eventually becomes a 'bridge' when the autistic character tells himself, "Alexa trusts Dog and Dog trusts Arlo, so Alexa trusts Arlo." This liberates him from his own distrust of himself within human relationships. Then when Dog dies, he has to overcome the breaking of the bridge between himself and the other human character, and accept that he is able to have that friendship without the proxy. What are your thoughts on the reunion with the dog later on? Too schmaltzy?
I think if you make it truly convincing that the dog has died, and the characters suffer real pain, then nobody's going to be upset when the dog returns. Only a monster could be upset at such a thing! It also depends on the circumstances. Thinking someone is dead when they aren't is a pretty big misunderstanding. Maybe it'd be more plausible if the dog was lost or stolen and later returned?
One of my first stories as a teenager was a dog story. A champion hunting dog dies protecting its master during a burglary. One of its pups, once viewed as worthless because it appeared untrainable, eventually took its father's place as a champion hunter because the son of the master patiently worked with the pup. The same burglar strikes again when the pup and the boy have both grown, and the story appears to repeat the outcome, only to end badly this time for the burglar. So I killed a dog, or rather, a burglar I created killed the dog, but the dog's pup got revenge.
Just gotta say, whenever I see this thread, all I can hear is, "I killed a dog and I liked it" in the tune of I Kissed A Girl.
Aww not the poor poochie. Poor little poodle, that is sad. I only hit cotton tail and Jack rabbits. And on rare occasion the skunk.
This. I know for me, it would need a really good setup and they would need to see the dog dead or be told by someone not affected as the 2 characters are. Hope that makes sense and is not mean.
I think I have to kill my MC's dog. The dog is instrumental to the story and is MC's greatest vulnerability. But I haven't figured out how or precisely when yet. I'm hoping the plot will veer from my outline somehow, magically, and my poor innocent pupster will get to survive. Regardless, the dog can always live again, since the story is a spec fic with heavy fantasy elements, using the concept of reincarnation and a panacea in the plot. So, hope is not lost for the poochie. It will just be so very hard to off the innocent animal, you know? I need to figure out a way for the scene to be clear enough to be unmistakable, but vague enough that I amd my audience aren't sickened by it. Such a quandry - that dog might just be my favorite darling. I don't want to murder her. Which is exactly why I have to, isn't it? It would propel the plot forward perfectly. Writing is brutal.
