This is a story about dogs going to a funeral, and it’s heartbreakingly beautiful
We know all dogs go to heaven, but now we know they go to funerals too. A band of stray dogs attended the funeral of animal lover Margarita Suárez last week. The dogs kept a vigil, that’s right, a downright vigil in the funeral home, lying on the floor and refusing to budge while Margarita’s body was prepared for cremation. The whole thing is eerie, and beautiful, and brought Margarita’s family a lot of peace.
You see, during her life Margarita was completely devoted to the stray animals in her neighborhood. Indeed, she was known for feeding over 120 stray cats and dogs every day at her home in Meridia, Mexico, making sure the the crowd of animals that turned up at her door never went without food. Margarita had such a heart for animals that she began carrying a bag of dog food around so she could feed hungry and homeless strays wherever she went.
After she passed, her family transported her body 830 miles away to a town where the funeral would be held. And do you know who showed up at the funeral home? A pack of stray dogs.
The workers at the Cuernavaca Morelos Mexico funeral home said they had never seen anything like it. Employees also claimed not to recognize the dogs, suggesting these dogs came to pay their respects to Margarita specifically.
Margarita’s daughter Patricia told the story on her Facebook page:
“My mother was an animal lover — she couldn’t come across any without giving them a little bit of food.
Upon arrival at her wake, out of nowhere a group of dogs came into the salon and stayed there all night as if on guard. This morning they left and couldn’t be found anywhere, but one hour before we brought my mom out the dogs came back and grouped around as if to say goodbye. I swear by God that it was beautiful, marvelous.”
Patricia told ABC News how comforting it was to have the dogs there to pay their respects. She said, “When I was in a moment of so much pain these dogs that came, they showed me that everything was going to be okay.”
Some skeptics doubt that dogs have the ability to understand what was happening, saying that we are just projecting our own human baggage onto the animals and their behavior. But if we take a moment to believe, it’s all completely beautiful and magic.