The doctors allowed the dog to enter the room to say goodbye to his owner – a few hours later, the nurse walked in and screamed in horror

But what weighed on him wasn’t death. It was the thought of leaving behind the one soul who had never left him.

Every morning, while the nurse adjusted his IV or straightened the sheets, he would glance toward the window and murmur, “Ritchie… where are you, boy?”

Ritchie was his dog—a scruffy, aging mutt with more gray than brown left in his fur. Fifteen years earlier, the man had found him shivering by the roadside and taken him home. They’d been inseparable ever since. Together, they’d buried a wife, mourned a son, and outlived nearly everyone they loved. Ritchie had become his shadow, his comfort, his reason to get up each day.

That afternoon, when the nurse stepped in to check his vitals, he clutched her wrist with unexpected strength. “Please,” he whispered, eyes shining. “I need to see Ritchie. I can’t leave without saying goodbye.”Continue reading…