A few hours after the physicians gave the dog permission to enter the room to bid his owner farewell, the nurse entered and let out a horrified scream 
There was silence in the palliative care room. The 82-year-old man’s cardiac monitor was the only device that occasionally made tiny beeps that were almost audible, like the last of his life.
He had long been aware of his diagnosis: extensive metastases and permanent alterations. He had days, maybe hours, left, the doctors told him honestly. However, the agony of parting held him, not his fear of dying. He whispered as he gazed out the window each day:
— Ritchie My dear, where are you?
He found his devoted but unkempt dog, Ritchie, by the side of the road when he was a puppy. After nearly fifteen years of dating, they had lost everything but each other: his wife, their son, their house, their friends, and everything else.
The old guy abruptly grasped the nurse’s hand when she entered the room to change the IV that day:
— Please… I’ll go see Ritchie. He is by himself. I can’t leave without giving him a final embrace.
The nurse’s face became white. Patients’ rooms were off-limits to animals. However, something made her heart thump. She saw the chief doctor. He regarded her as if she were crazy:
This is a medical facility. However, if it’s his last request…
A gentle bark was heard at the hospital entrance two hours later. There stood a scrawny dog with a graying snout.
Ritchie immediately leaped upon the bed as soon as the nurse opened the room’s door. He rested his head on his owner’s shoulder and softly placed himself across his chest.
The man muttered:
I apologize. I apologize for not being there for you. My little one… Thank you.
He wept, caressed the dog, and planted a kiss on his head. Ritchie then gave a little moan, as though to announce, “I’m here. I agree with you. Until the very end.
For several hours, they lay in that position. In order to avoid disturbing them, the nurse exited the room. She shouted in fear when she came back later and opened the door
She froze in the doorway, panting, as the nurse returned to the room in the evening.
As previously, they were still lying there. But there was silence on the monitor.
The old man was dead. However, Ritchie also laid in his arms, his nose nestled on his neck. The separation was too much for the dog’s heart to handle.
Together, the final people who had each other departed. silently. In love. in allegiance.
