A dog mourns his owner to the point where he refuses to leave the dead man’s body. In a heart-wrenching story about how dogs express emotion, one about a loyal bull terrier staying by his deceased owner’s in sweltering heat is moving.
KFOR 4reports that the confused canine was found near a man who appeared to die from natural causes. Homicide detectives think the dog’s owner was a transient. The lost animal suffered in Oklahoma’s 100-degree heat to be near his side. Although he had access to water, he reportedly wouldn’t move away from his deceased owner.
Animal control officials tried getting the bull terrier away from the man’s body, but the dog wouldn’t budge. Eventually they had to drag him away.
Animal control officials try moving the bull terrier away from his dead owner’s body.
The bull terrier is currently held at the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter and expressing deep sorrow. He’s showing overwhelming signs of grief and depression, which officials say is normal behavior for a dog that doesn’t know what to do without its family.
As Animal welfare supervisor Sheridan Lowey talks with KFOR 4, the dog is under a desk and mourns to the point where it’s as if he’s inconsolable. Lowery tells the news source:
“The dog kept wanting to pull back to go back to where the remains of where the deceased owner was.”
She’s shares that this isn’t an unusual reaction after a dog has lost its owner:
“We have found animals inside residences with owners literally lying on the body next to the body because they are family, they’re sad. Their owner is deceased. They don’t know what is going on. They don’t know how to act. They don’t know how to react.”
The bull terrier finds himself in an unfamiliar place where a lot of other dogs reside. He hears incessant barking and is unsure of his surroundings. Lowery hasn’t been able to break the dog from his extreme depression. He’s not eating and won’t bark; he wants to be alone and mourn. Lowery took him for a walk and explains how the dog acted:
“I took him out to go walk our facility here for a little bit and he keeps looking everywhere. He’s looking to his left, he’s looking to his right.”
Grieving dog looks for his owner outside on a walk.
The dog was hoping to see his owner while out for his walk. Detectives will spend the next five days trying to find relatives of the deceased. If they’re unable to contact anyone, the dog might go up for adoption.
Lower says a dog like this could make a great family pet, given the kind of attachment and dedication he’s shown.
Daily Mail has a number of images from KFOR 4 of the dog that is mourning his owner, with three of them included in this article.
