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Lifestyle & Human Interest

When Owner Dies, Dog Refuses To Eat for 10 Days. After Seeing Body in Casket, Finally Eats Food

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Pets have a special place in their owners’ hearts. Many of them are our fur babies and we treat them as such.

To humans, a dog is a special part of our lives. They are there for a few years, and then they go to meet us on the rainbow bridge.

To dogs, however, their human is their whole life. Especially when they join the family as a puppy. They spend their entire lives with their owners, and they are completely devoted to them.

A post shared by Nala (@nala.thedalmatian) on

Taking all these facts into consideration, one dog’s reaction to her owner’s sudden passing should not come as much of a surprise.

Sadie, a 13-year-old border collie-dalmatian-shepherd mix, was adopted by Julia Beaulieu and her husband when Sadie was only 8 weeks old.

You can imagine that the three became fast friends and Sadie was a loyal companion for the 13 years that she was part of the family.

When Beaulieu’s husband died suddenly of a heart attack, Sadie took the loss like any grieving family member.

“Once they stopped working around him, (Sadie) came and she laid with him and pushed at his hand almost as if to get him to pet her,” Beaulieu told Global News. “She was daddy’s girl — she was his and he was hers.”

The dog openly expressed her devastation and even stopped eating for 10 days, and as a result lost 10 pounds.

“She was so distraught,” Beaulieu said. “Around 2:30 or three o’clock she’d listen for his truck, she’d go stand at the window and look. She was waiting for him to come home.”

In order to help Sadie move on, Beaulieu decided to let the dog say goodbye to her human at the funeral service.

“She hadn’t eaten since he passed, so I thought by letting her see inside the coffin and seeing him there, maybe it was going to give her some closure as it did for me,” Beaulieu said.

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“I let her stand up and look (in the casket) and she had almost a look of shock on her face. She stood there … and was quite puzzled by it and then she just seemed to relax and just stood there with me.”

The CEO of the funeral company captured the now viral photograph. “It really showed the connection between humans and their pets and how tight it is,” Jeremy May of Elements Cremation said.

As soon as Sadie returned home from the memorial service, she began eating once again. Our hearts are with this loyal dog and her family during this difficult time.

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Erin Coates was an editor for The Western Journal for over two years before becoming a news writer. A University of Oregon graduate, Erin has conducted research in data journalism and contributed to various publications as a writer and editor.
Erin Coates was an editor for The Western Journal for over two years before becoming a news writer. She grew up in San Diego, California, proceeding to attend the University of Oregon and graduate with honors holding a degree in journalism. During her time in Oregon, Erin was an associate editor for Ethos Magazine and a freelance writer for Eugene Magazine. She has conducted research in data journalism, which has been published in the book “Data Journalism: Past, Present and Future.” Erin is an avid runner with a heart for encouraging young girls and has served as a coach for the organization Girls on the Run. As a writer and editor, Erin strives to promote social dialogue and tell the story of those around her.
Birthplace
Tucson, Arizona
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated with Honors
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, University of Oregon
Books Written
Contributor for Data Journalism: Past, Present and Future
Location
Prescott, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, French
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Health, Entertainment, Faith




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