Send this page to someone via email

Sadie, a 13-year-old border collie-dalmatian-shepherd cross, has been a loyal companion since being adopted when she was just eight weeks old.

When one of her owners died suddenly, she took it like any grieving family member would.

Julia Beaulieu’s husband died from a sudden heart attack a few months ago.

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

As Beaulieu came to terms with her loss she also had to deal with a devastated dog.

Story continues below advertisement

“She was so distraught and lost. 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.” Tweet This

Sadie stopped eating for 10 days and lost 10 pounds.

When it was time for her husband’s memorial service, Beaulieu decided it was time for Sadie to also say goodbye.

“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,” she said.

“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 moment was captured in a photo taken by the CEO of the funeral company.

Story continues below advertisement

“It really showed the connection between humans and their pets and how tight it is,” Jeremy May of Elements Cremation said.

Having dogs at funeral services is a growing trend, May said.

“They’re family,” Beaulieu added.

Beaulieu says every time she looks at the photo of Sadie at the casket it brings her a little comfort.

As for Sadie, Beaulieu said she resumed eating after the memorial service.