A touching moment between two dogs has broken hearts after a typically energetic pup sat calmly beside her ailing canine neighbor in his final days.
Andrea Cassiol from Buffalo, New York, told Newsweek: “Watching them say their last farewell was heartbreaking but beautiful.”
Cassiol shared the touching story of her yellow Labrador, Biscuit, who was diagnosed with cancer and just two weeks shy of his 16th birthday, to TikTok where it has been viewed over 6.5 million times.
As Biscuit’s health declined, a surprising change occurred in her neighbor’s dog, Zina, who one day decided to stop and sit quietly next to biscuit.
“It was quite unusual to see them sitting so peacefully together because Zina is typically a lively and exuberant dog, constantly running, barking, and playing,” Cassiol told Newsweek. “In the many years Zina lived next door, I had never witnessed her so calm before.”
Pictures of Biscuit and Zina sitting together in the viral video that has broken hearts online.
@moxiegurll/TikTok
The video, posted earlier this week under handle @moxiegurll, shows Biscuit lying quietly near a fence while Zina watches over him. Heartbreakingly, just days later, Biscuit was put to sleep.
In the caption, Cassiol wrote: “The neighbor’s dog stood in that spot for weeks, still looking for him after he was put down. Ignore me crying in the background.”
Speaking to Newsweek, Cassiol said: “I posted the video on TikTok because I thought it was such a sweet moment between them. I always shed a tear when I watch the video, and I just felt like I had to share it.”
The video quickly gained viral attention as people reacted to the precious moment between Biscuit and Zina.
“The caption has me sobbing. Not the dog waiting for him for weeks,” one user wrote. Another said: “Dogs know. They always know.”
“The other pup knows,” agreed another viewer. “They can smell the cancer.”
Research suggests that dogs have an extraordinary ability to detect illness, including cancer, through their sense of smell. The idea first emerged in 1989 when a woman noticed her dog persistently sniffing and even trying to bite a mole, which was later diagnosed as malignant melanoma.
Studies have since shown that trained dogs can identify various cancers, such as bladder, lung, ovarian, and colorectal, by detecting unique scents in breath or urine samples, though this is something that is still being studied and is not yet used in practice.
Speaking on dogs’ ability to detect the disease in humans, Ashley Stenzel, PhD, and Roswell Park postdoctoral fellow, was quoted by the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center saying: “The ability of dogs to detect melanoma, a potentially fatal skin cancer, has been formally studied and confirmed. Given that melanoma is a cancer presenting with lesions on the skin, it would be logical for dogs to be able to detect a lesion.”
Although she noted: “While the idea of using dogs to detect cancer is attractive, given that it is non-invasive, until much more research and training is done, it is not yet accurate enough, nor practical.”
While it’s impossible to know if Zina did detect her canine neighbor’s illness, a 2017 study found that dogs could distinguish between urine samples from other dogs with and without cancer, supporting the idea that dogs can sense illness in their peers.
“I never expected millions of people to watch my TikTok,” Cassiol said. “It’s crazy how so many people have gotten so emotional. People were commenting they were sobbing from watching it, and it is so sweet. What started as a personal moment has really connected with so many other people.”
This isn’t the first time a dog has sensed that it was a canine companion’s last day. Last year 8-year-old Charlie melted hearts when he said a heartfelt goodbye to his friend Foxy, unexpectedly curling up with her on her final night.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
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