Moose didn’t understand why his “dad” wasn’t coming back.
He was only 3 years old and had spent one year living with him, adopted through Eleventh Hour Rescue in Randolph, New Jersey. When his owner died of cancer, no one explained anything to him. The dog simply sat beside the hospital bed that had been left empty in the house, in the same place where he had previously waited by the door for him to return.
On June 17, 2019, two shelters —Eleventh Hour Rescue and NorthStar Pet Rescue— posted that photo on Facebook. Within days, it was shared more than 3.000 times and hundreds of adoption inquiries came in from places as far away as Australia. Linda Barish, a shelter volunteer, said that the policy had always been clear: if the owner dies, they take the dog back to find him a new home.
On June 22, Moose went to live with a family of four from New Jersey that had recently lost their own dog. They weren’t the first to apply for the adoption, but they were the ones who were the best fit for him. Sometimes one person’s grief heals another’s.