Mark, I had to put my dog down, he was a 14 year old Dachsund named Neiko. He was suffering from kidney failure. He has been declining for two years, I did evrything that I could to keep him going. In early December, he started to decline rapidly. I didn’t want to face it, then on Dec 13, he had a seizure, I though he was going to die right then, but he didn’t. I remembered what you said about how dogs just hang on, I tried to fool myself into thinking he would somehow survive, but he stopped eating. I watched him get thinner and thinner, still I fed him with a baby syringe, chicken soup ground up, until just three days ago, he started throwing up and would not keep anything down. I looked at him, shaking, trembling, disoriented, so thin, and I knew that I had to take charge of ending his life.

I brought him on New Year’s Eve to a beautiful animal hospital in NJ. I was crying so hard that I couldn’t breathe, I felt like I was both helping and betraying him. I loved him, he was my best friend, we sat together on the couch every night, he slept on my bed for 12 years until he started with incontinence two years ago. I can’t describe the empty feeling that I have the loss is so hard to bear. I know you understand my pain. I will always love my dog, forever, that is what I told him as I left him to die.

Doing this, ranks as one of the hardest things I have ever done. Losing my Dad was so tough, but losing my pal is incomprehensible, I grieve not just for his life that has ended, but for a part of mine that has ended. I love your show, I admire and respect you, thank God for Mark Levin, my hero. With gratitude, Phyllis Miranda a loyal listener.

Phyllis from NY