It’s a sad truth that dogs don’t live as long as humans, but the best thing we can do is make their life the best it can be and let them feel loved until the very end.
No dog should die alone and it is important that they feel comfortable and safe in their final moments.
In a bittersweet and beautiful story, a woman went to great lengths to make sure a dying shelter dog would have a friend in his final hours.
A dog named Watson arrived at Speranza Animal Rescue in 2018 after a college student found him alone in a park.
The shelter accepted the dog, but it was clear that he did not have long to live. The stray was emaciated and covered in sores, and had a cancerous tumor in his hind leg. He was taken to the emergency room, treated intravenously with antibiotics and tested.
But the founder of the shelter, Jeanine Guido, felt that the dog could live a long time, and the only thing he had to do was to make himself comfortable. “I had a gut feeling that things weren’t going to be good the next day,” she told.
So Janine put some blankets and dog beds on the floor for Watson to roll over and sleep comfortably, but then she did something extraordinary.
Sensing that the dog was in its final hours and needed company, she decided to spend the night with him. She wrote on Facebook that she “could not bring to leave sweet Watson.”
Janine and Watson hugged and Janine talked to him as they fell asleep. Not much is known about Watson’s past, but given his condition, it appears that he lived a life of neglect and loneliness.
Janine showed him the love he had gone so long without.
“I didn’t want to leave him alone. Not when he needed me the most,” she told. “He slept like a rock all night, cuddled up to me so tight. I cried myself to sleep, and woke up in tears as well.”
When Watson woke up the next morning, he was in bad state. The shelter wrote on Facebook that he was “turning cold, spinning in circles, and falling over,” and that he was “suffering.”
Watson passed away that morning, and Janine was with him to the end.
While she was heartbroken the dog passed away, she knew that in the few hours they spent together, she made him feel loved for the first and last time.
“I’m just so thankful I was able to hold him tight for his last night,” Janine told . “I was telling him how much he was loved — and that his life mattered. My heart is breaking, but I would not change a thing.”
It’s a sad story, but it shows the impact a little love can have in a dog’s life. Thank you to Janine for showing Watson the love he had so long been denied, right when he needed it the most.
