My lovely Koro suffered because of my ignorant recklessness.

Sometimes it can really be cathartic to get something off your chest and admit that what you did was wrong. It can also be instructive to others who may be engaging in the same type of behavior without really thinking about it. Maybe they need a swift kick in the pants, and your confession is just the thing to jolt them out of their complacency.

I'll start things off. When I adopted my first dog, Koro, in 1980, I knew nothing whatsoever about dog care. I was in college, and puppy Koro was roaming around on a street corner. Someone scooped her up and said that she was going to try to find out where Koro lived, and I said, well, if you can't find out where she lives, bring her to me. It was that casual.

One day, when she was 6 months old, a friend said that he was going on an errand and asked if he could take Koro along. Without a thought, I said sure. And out the door they went, with the leash in his hand but not attached to Koro. Moments later, she had been struck by a van. She ran back to my apartment in terror, but the next day it came to light that she had actually broken her back. Literally smashed a vertebra.

What followed were two surgeries and, I'm sure, a lot of pain for my innocent little puppy. And then arthritis at age 5 and occasional flare-ups of joint inflammation throughout the remaining 12 years of her life. All because of my ignorant negligence!

I'm so sorry, Koro.

For the rest of her life, I tried to make it up to her. Thankfully, I discovered holistic medicine a few years later and was able to keep her mostly pain-free and limber through the use of nutritional supplements in spite of the arthritis that resulted from the trauma to her backbone.

But I'm still trying to make it up to her. Why do you think I write this dog blog?

If you have a confession to make about the way that you treated an animal, please visit PETA's new "I Confess" Web feature, where you can tell the whole world how sorry you are. Why don't you leave us a comment here, too, just for good measure?