Amanda Seyfried talks openly about the ‘circle of life’ to kids.
In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, the 38-year-old actress talks about how she talks to her two children, daughter Nina and son Thomas with husband Thomas Sadoski, about the death of a pet. He revealed what he was doing.
“It’s difficult,” Seyfried said, before noting that her children, ages 7 and 4, were part of her family, but “we’ve lost some animals.”
Her children have noticed that Seyfried’s dog, Mamma Mia! Finn, is getting older. The star explains, “They know he’s an old man, and especially my daughter knows things die, but you spend chunks of time with them and you make them… You respect them, you love them, you give them the best life you can, and then they leave and you remember them.”
“It’s just the most positive spin for me,” added Seyfried, who works with Synchrony CareCredit and Pets Best Insurance.
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Amanda Seyfried and her dog Finn.
Synchrony’s CareCredit Credit Card
Seyfried and her husband met in 2015 while starring in the off-Broadway play The Way We Get By and live full-time with their two children on a farm in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
According to the New York Times, the family keeps several chickens, numerous horses, several goats, and a donkey there.
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For Seyfried, living with so many animals has made it easier to talk about death with young children.
“What I learned from living on a farm was that I was exposed to a lot of death, and that helped shape my relationship with death,” she says. “And I’m almost certain that my children will have a healthier understanding and appreciation of life and death because of the farm.”
Amanda Seyfried in December 2023.
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Seyfried can’t believe her beloved Australian shepherd Finn has celebrated his 15th birthday.
“That’s insane,” the Mean Girls star says. “We’re so lucky he’s still alive and thriving. Keep knocking on wood.”
Seyfried is realistic about pet ownership and knows that being a pet parent can come with some difficult moments, especially when your pet gets sick and needs veterinary attention. This is where our latest partnership with Synchrony comes into play.
“When you pay with CareCredit and submit the form, all eligible charges are automatically reimbursed, which is genius,” she tells PEOPLE. “It’s strange that this wasn’t introduced earlier, because if you think about it, when enough people are thinking about that moment of vet visit… no one wants to be there. “Because no one wants to have to make these decisions for a veterinarian,” their pet, and everyone knows they’re going to lose an arm and a leg. ”
“They simplified a critical moment that is usually a moment of crisis or high stress for pet parents,” Seyfried continues. “The technology they created is definitely the first of its kind.”