While so many of you have stated how wrong it is for me to judge, isn't that exactly what you are now doing to me??? I "don't belong on a board like this". I'm "in a hurtful and dark place" I'm "going thru the anger stages of grief" I'm this I'm that and everything in between. Well how many of you have reached out to me to see why I posted what I did? How many of you have e-mailed me or PM'd me to ask why? ZERO!!!! How many have judged me based on 1 post? Look in the mirrors. Not one of you have taken a single step or made a single effort to do such a thing. So your criticism means nothing to me. I'm the one who stays up to 4 am talking with people to help them thru their pain. I'm the one who offers to speak privately with anyone if they should feel the need to do so. I'm the one who is big enough to apologize for my hurtful words. What do any of you do? You spew forth such animosity and judgements of your own with no thought to scratching past the surface. You run to the administrators "He said this!!!!" "Yeah, he said that!!!" There's a word for you, it's called H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E-S.

My mistake, 1 person messaged me so I do not wish to offend them. Thanks for the effort.

I am not familiar with your situation as I'm fairly new to the board, but I can assume you've lost a pet that meant a lot to you. In that, I know you and I share similar pain and I can respect whatever you've been through in your loss. So with that said, I think we all need to get back to using this board as it was intended....a pet bereavement board...which I can acknowlege that that's what your intentions were with your posts (most of which I never saw). If you wish to state why you said those things, then feel free...but please don't lash out and call us names just because no one asked. Did it ever occur to you that a LOT of people got hurt over the past couple of days (some of it having NOTHING to do with you) and perhaps just weren't up to asking you?
If you wish to explain, I'll read without judgement, as I did before. I did post earlier to people but without judgement. But I wonder honestly if we should ALL just drop it and move on.

And just so you know, I have spent many hours of my life assisting others....this board is not the only one I belong to, never mind the people in my "real" life here. I think it's a bit presumptuous of you to think no one else PM's people to help them out. Hell, I'm a teacher, I spend my LIFE helping others! I think that was a blanket statement to make but that's my opinion. I'm not lashing back at you, just stating how I interpretted your post. No need for a retort.

Firstly, allow me to apologize if anything I may have said afflicted you in any way. I'm fairly sure what this thread is in reference to, and after reading your post I couldn't help but feel partially responsible for your current state of mind. It was never my intention to hurt your feelings - though various comments that were made to another member of this forum most definitively were hurtful in one respect or another, and that's the truth of it. It was my mind that I didn't *need* to ask why these comments were made; they seemed to be of an intentionally viscious slant. Evidently, I was wrong, and I am perhaps not the only one.

Secondly, I doubt very many people were aware of your current predicament - as a certain poster had enough personal discretion to withhold any names from various quotes made in another thread.

Finally, and in hopes that this whole theme can finally be laid to rest, I offer my heartfelt condolences to you. I will pray that you find whatever you are looking for, be it here or elsewhere. We all know the pain of loss here, and what an enormous stressor that can be. Let no grudges be held, okay? *HUGS*

We all love each other here, in some way or another, so let's renew that tradition now if it is at all possible.

God bless you, Romeo's_Daddy.

Ok. Let me clarify something. Firstly to those who are offering apologies. You don't need to apologize. My feelings are not hurt and where I am emotionally is fine. Your words are very kind but truly not neccesary. My reason for the "Practice what You Preach" post was simply to point out the quickness with which some have chosen to judge me, the way I was lambasted for supposedly judging how someone else grieves. That was not my intent when I posted the post that started all this. The only thing I will apologize for is using poor judgement in the words I selected to use. I can assure you that if I wanted to hurt Ann I wouldn't have called her kind and caring. I wouldn't have suggested remembering the happy healthy times. I simply disagree with the benefits of looking at pictures of an animal taken after it has died. I thought disagreements or differences of opinion could be expressed with less uproar than it caused. I am a brutally honest person and if anyone on this site has pictures of their dead animals, I simply disagree with the constructiveness of such. The thought of taking such a picture is so foreign to me, something that in a million years would never have entered my mind. I never said anyone was wrong for doing so, I just question the benefit. Is that so bad a thing to do, to question something? Differing points of view and seeing the other sides of things are things that I feel allow us to grow intellectually, to see things in a different light. I am not threatened by people who have a different opinion of things than me. It is their right, your right, to have different opinions. It is something I respect. I do not have to agree with it, but I do not have the right to dismiss it as unjustified. But I can question it. The only emotion this entire ordeal has stirred in me is anger, and that is because with the exception of MD Cohn, everyone else chose to focus on only a couple words in the post. Words for which I have apologized. Then a snowball effect began and everyone fed off of everyone else's post rather than, I feel, seeing the whole picture. Again, no apologies are due to me. I just wish judgements had been reserved until the sum of the parts was studied rather than just a single part.

Dear Romeo's Daddy,

Ok, I'm a very guilty party that jumped in and made a rotten statement about you not posting here. I sincerely apologize... it was a heat-of-the-moment, defensive thing. That's no excuse for my behavior and I never should have done it. I apologize.

You also have every right to be here, just as we all do. There is an unbreakable, common bond between anyone/everyone who comes here... a broken heart for the loss of a very, very loved animal. ANYONE that loves and grieves an animal is a person with a beautiful and gentle heart.

How about the past is erased and we all start over?? Ann is another beautiful heart and I'm confident that she, too, may agree.

Are we all friends?