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[quote=Anonymous]We adopted our retired racing greyhound in 2020. He’d never been a pet, never lived in a house, never slept in a bed, never had a toy, and his human interaction came exclusively from trainers at the track. We avoided seeing my elderly parents during the height of covid. Then we found out in 2021 that my dad was dying of an extremely aggressive cancer and he didn’t have much time left. I needed to help my mom care for him. After caring for my father for a couple weeks, it became apparent that the kids needed to come right away if they wanted to see him. My husband brought the kids and the dog. This was the first time my dog met my parents.

A few days later, a hospice nurse gave my father a drug she said would help with his anxiety, except he was on massive amounts of morphine and fentanyl, so it basically acted as a paralytic. We didn’t know Dad would be 100% incapacitated, so we’d had him lay down in a different bedroom while we made space in the master bedroom for the hospital bed that would be delivered the next day. We realized he was awkwardly sprawled on a twin bed (he was tall) and we couldn’t rouse him, let alone move him back to the master bedroom.

His breathing was shallow and I was really scared he was going to stop breathing overnight. I stayed on the floor, next to my dad all night (so my mom could get some sleep), listening to his breathing and occasionally getting up and trying to move him into a better position on the bed, even though he was dead weight. I’m my dog’s person, so he insisted on sleeping next to me on the floor. At that point, he had always made sure he was in the same room with me.

Around 6:00 in the morning, I felt pretty confident that my dad wasn’t going to stop breathing or fall off the bed, so I decided to get some sleep myself. When I got up off the floor, instead of following me, my dog moved to the spot where I’d been, right next to my dad. I called and called my dog to follow me to my old bedroom, where he’d been sleeping on his nice dog bed the previous few nights, but he wouldn’t budge. He stayed by my dad’s side the whole time I slept. It was like he sensed that my dad was very ill and needed someone. I was very touched that a dog who hadn’t been raised as a pet had that kind of perception, and realized that I was happier with his keeping my dad company than if he’d stayed by my side. He’s a good friend.[/quote]

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