A loyal dog whose owner died late last year appears to have appeared at Mass every day for the past two months at the church where the funeral was held.
Tommy, a 7-year-old German Shepherd, once accompanied his owner Maria Margherita Lochi to Mass at the church of Santa Maria Assunta in San Donaci, Italy, according to the Daily Mail, and was allowed to sit at her feet.
After Lochi died, the dog joined the mourners at her funeral, following locals and following Maria’s coffin as it was carried into the church. Tommy, a loyal stray dog adopted by Lochi, appeared when the bell rang marking the start of services.
“He was there every time I celebrated Mass and was very well behaved,” said Father Donato Panna. “He doesn’t make a sound.” No parishioners complained, Panna said, and villagers gave the dog food and water and allowed it to sleep nearby.
Panna added: ‘I didn’t hear a single bark from him the whole time he arrived’. “He waited patiently by the altar and just sat there quietly. I couldn’t bear to kick him out – I just lost my dog, so I left him there until Mass was over. finished and then I let him go.”
This extremely loyal dog is very popular. In 2011, a Navy SEAL Labrador retriever fell down next to his owner’s coffin at a funeral in Rockford, Iowa, refusing to leave.
The heartbreaking photo of the scene, taken by the SEAL’s cousin and posted to Facebook, quickly went viral. And on Tuesday, a 60-year-old man’s dog watched and waited for 30 minutes for the fire department to rescue its owner, who had fallen through thin ice into the frozen Colorado River.
Nearby hunters witnessed the crash and called 911. But while they waited for help, the man’s dog refused to leave the scene. Like an anxious relative in the waiting room, the dog paced back and forth, trying to reach the man, who had repeatedly chased the dog away out of fear for its safety.