When I had my fourteen year old dog (with cancer) put down there was only one injection. I stayed there and held him in my arms, comforting him. I had thought about shooting him but there are so many things that can go wrong and I really didn't have the heart to do that. Rom was always a little leery of the Vet's office and he was nervous, kind of like he knew what was going on but as I cradled him he calmed down some. Dr. Strong explained that the barbiturate would relax him and he would feel no pain and that was the case.

The Dr. offered to take care of the body but I thanked him just the same and carried him out to my truck. After I got in and started off down the road I began to cry, had to stop and just cried my heart out. When I arrived home I buried him where my kids had buried there pets and the little cross still stands some ten years later.

I used to be very in favor of capital punishment but I finally realized that it really isn't much of a punishment to release some one of the burden of life. It's just the briefest of moments.

Real punishment is salting them away with their thoughts, with their conscience (if they have one) for the rest of their life. Some go crazy (ier), some discover their humanity, all of them suffer however long their temporal existence may be on this world.