This elderly dog may be gone, but her owners are honoring her in the most heartwarming way.

Gretchen the German shepherd always used to look forward to seeing her mailman Fernando Barboza arrive at her door – so when she passed away earlier this month, her owners presented the postal worked with a note and a bag of dog treats.

The note read: “Gretchen passed away yesterday. She asked me to ask you if you would share her treats that she never got to finish with the other dogs on your route. She always enjoyed seeing you come to the door and was always happy to get a snack from you. Thank you, the Cimino Family.”

Barboza was so touched by the note, he sent a picture of it to his 22-year-old daughter, which she immediately published to Twitter.

My dad is a mailman and he likes to give dogs on his route treats. Today he told us one of the dogs on his route passed away and his owners gave him this bag of treats with this note 😭 pic.twitter.com/JA46PU60a4 — eyelean (@amorningsting) April 1, 2019

Since Barboza’s daughter published the photo at the start of April, it has been shared hundreds of thousands of times.

A self-admitted animal lover, Barboza told The Dodo that he has always carried around a bag of dog treats in his mail truck so he can use them to make friends with the pups on his route.

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He then goes on to say that these treats were part of the reason that he became the first person outside of the Cimino family who Gretchen liked.

So as a means of honoring his furry friend, Barboza has been sure to dole out the treats in her honor.

Thank you. I know she’s up in heaven looking pleased with herself just like this. I’m hoping her story will get people to see that adopting older rescues is well worth it. pic.twitter.com/7t6b1X67VJ — DeCuervo (@DeCuervo2) April 5, 2019

Though Gretchen’s owners say that they had been heartbroken over their dog’s passing, the sudden outpouring of love and support from social media users has helped to ease their sorrows.

My wife and I were told about Gretchen’s letter to Fernando being on Twitter. I can’t begin to tell y’all how much it has meant to us seeing how much love and support y’all have shown our girl. She was the absolute best. This is a short video of her seeing her mailman. pic.twitter.com/uK9Y2BtKtO — DeCuervo (@DeCuervo2) April 4, 2019

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