This is for dog lovers who have had to put their best friend down, at some point in the past. How do you deal with the guilt that comes from such an act? Mrs. O and I know deep down that we did the right thing. But there's still the sense that we took our little, trusting buddy to his execution -- and watched him eat the chow that tranquilized him for the needle. We've gone over in our minds several times the need for this final act -- painful glaucoma, blindness, tumors, painful warts, etc. But we know that we could have gotten a few more months and maybe a year more out of him. A few years ago, I remember rushing him to the vet in the middle of the night, bleeding after he'd clipped a vein on his stomach. I couldn't stop the bleeding. And I didn't want him to die helplessly like that when a quick operation could prevent the problem. This time, we willingly took him to the vet, knowing that the vet might tell us those awful words: "It's time." Which the vet did.

Question: How did you deal with the guilt after you put a beloved pet down?