It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: leaving your dog behind to go to the hospital for a long period of time.
When Shane Godfrey, from Sanford, had to go into hospital for five weeks, his first thought was who was going to take care of his beloved pooch, Willie.
Luckily, Shane’s friends and family rallied around to make sure that Willie received lots of love and affection while he was gone. Now Shane could turn all his efforts towards getting better.
Shane battled throughout his entire stint in hospital.
He has been brought in for flu complications, and according to WBTV, at one point, he almost died. It was likely that thoughts of his beloved dog were what kept Shane so determined to pull through.
When the day arrived that Shane was able to leave the hospital, his friends and family immediately set up a special area for both man and dog to be reunited.
It had been five long weeks, and everyone was eager to see how Willie would react upon seeing his owner again.
Shane had lost over 50 pounds since he’d arrived at the hospital and was looking virtually unrecognizable. Would Willie still know who he was?
At the special reunion, cameras begin to roll while Shane sits nervously on a park bench, waiting for his dog to be brought across to him.
When Willie arrives, things immediately become tense.
It’s clear that the dog doesn’t recognize poor Shane. He appears to have his guard up as he eyes Shane from a safe distance away from the bench, barking and pacing nervously.
However, with some gentle encouragement, Willie edges closer toward his owner until he’s close enough to pick up Shane’s scent.
One little sniff is all it takes for Willie to suddenly recognize who the man is sitting in front of him – and the moment of recognition is clear to see.
Once he realizes that he’s seeing his owner again after all this time, Willie totally loses it.
There are lots of cuddles, licks, frantic jumping, and excited running (all from Willie) as he says hello to his dad. His tail is wagging so hard that his whole body shakes!
It’s bound to be a relief — since Shane was probably worried that Willie would never recognize him again!
“Willie, Willie come here, come here, what are you doing?” Shane can be heard saying to Willie as the exciteable dog races around the park.
“He had to smell him,” said someone from behind the camera.
The sweet video was posted onto YouTube by DailyPicksandFlicks, and many people took to the comments to share their love for the video:
“Amazing and heartwarming! It’s sad how humans are based so much around appearance. This dog truly loves this man & not by the way he remembers he looks. Hence ‘just a dang good reason a dog’s love is truly unconditional,'” one person said.
Another added:
“If your own dog doesn’t recognize you from your weight loss then you did a hell of a job.”
Someone else joked:
“The dog’s like ‘I can HEAR him, but I can’t SEE him! What kind of sorcery is this???!…’”
A final person wrote:
“And that’s why dogs are a man’s best friend. The love you get from a dog is immense, very few animals can compare.”
Take a look at the touching video for yourself below.
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