It's hard to lose a pet at any age. We welcome them into our homes and they quickly become our best friends. Whether you're a dog person, cat person, or even a bird person, you've probably loved a pet as if it was a family member.

Sadly, pets are often our first experience with death and loss. If you had a pet growing up, you probably vividly remember the overwhelming grief when it passed. Stephen King even wrote a bestseller about a parent trying to protect their child from that heartbreak. Obviously the events in Pet Sematary are fictional, but the grief felt very real.

One child in the British town of Hale has evidently gone through that tragic experience. We don't know much about the child, but what we do know makes our hearts go out to them.

Notes started to appear near Old Meadow Lane, written in a childish scrawl.

"My cat got killed here. Please go slow. Animals crossing," it read.

A street cuts through a residential area, as it does in many cities around the world, which means small children and animals put themselves at risk to speeders.

Neil Taylor, former councilor for the district, said the notes are "more powerful than a street sign."

"It's obvious it's a child's handwriting so it really pulls at the heartstrings."

Untold numbers of pets lose their lives in traffic accidents, all of them leaving behind a mourning family. Hopefully signs like these can help spare some more children that pain.