ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Imagine knowing your life is ending and worrying about what will happen to your pet after you’re gone. A Rockford hospice nurse went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure her patient could die peacefully, by adopting his dog.
“There was just something that made me feel like I needed to make sure this dog was taken care of. There was just something about him,” said Erica Hebel, a nurse with Northern Illinois Hospice.
Heebel is now the owner of little Copper, a tiny, older Pomeranian she took in after caring for an elderly man who was in hospice care.
Copper stayed by his owner’s side during the man’s health issues, and now he spends his day hanging out with Hebel’s chickens and ducks.
The adoption was made possible by Northern Illinois Hospice’s Pet Peace of Mind program.
The program’s volunteer coordinator, Sheila O’Leary, said, “We recognize that sometimes resources are thin, and that the care of the pet is just as important a anything else and the program helps get pets to the groomer, helping with supplies, cleanup.”