Groton - Cynthia Lawrence's second-graders came to the Groton Family Farm Monday morning to close one door and open another.

The class, which spent the school year writing about the unlikely friendship between two animals on the farm - a duck named Buster and a Great Pyrenees dog named Wheeler - were devastated when Wheeler died in February at the age of 17. So on Monday, they came to the farm from their nearby Claude Chester Elementary School to pay their respects at his grave.

They also came to meet the farm's new Great Pyrenees, Zeus, a lovable giant of a dog who was thrilled to meet 25 screeching 8-year-olds. Zeus and Buster are now friends, although Buster has broadened his social horizons since Wheeler passed away and now often hangs out with the chickens.

The children brought cards and flowers, and after running through the field with Zeus for a few minutes they went to the back fence of the farm, where Wheeler is buried. They left their mementos and touched his headstone. There were some tears and hugs.

After that, farm owner Warren Burrows made sure that the kids got to pet one or two of the seven newborn lambs, including three sets of twins.

It was a good lesson on a beautiful day, Lawrence remarked before the kids headed back to school. In life there is friendship and death, and then life again.