A dog found his own unique way to say goodbye to the man who changed her life.

Hettie would never have found her way to Angie and her family had it not been for the intervention of the latter's father-in-law Terry.

Angie and her husband, who live in Wirral, in northwestern England, had initially been unsure about getting a dog. "We have twin girls and one of them had meningitis when she was younger and now has disabilities," Angie told Newsweek. "She had always been very scared of dogs so we were not able to get one."

Terry had always had dogs though. "He had dogs for 80 years and loved them so much," Angie said. One day, her husband turned to her and said it was time to "do something nice for ourselves."

She began searching for the perfect canine. One that would be "quite fluffy" so their daughter could cuddle and pet them, rather than react with fear.

They found that dog in Hettie, a gorgeous, happy-go-lucky cavapoo who seemed perfect for them. Cavapoos do not come cheap though and Hettie might well have gotten away had Angie's father-in-law not intervened. "Terry paid for Hettie for us," Angie said. As time marched on and Hettie became firmly ensconced in the family. The twins loved her and couldn't be happier with their four-legged friends.

But things were also beginning to change for Terry. He was getting old and was struggling to get around as easily as he used. "His last dog passed away a couple of years ago and he wasn't able to get another one, so was heartbroken," Angie said.

Remembering how Terry was the one that brought Hettie into their lives, Angie made a point of always bringing her to see him. "Terry loved seeing Hettie and she loved visiting him," Angie said. "He always had a treat waiting for her so she used to run into his house."

Though he was older and less mobile, Angie said Terry was "always very independent" right up until a couple of weeks ago. That was when he suffered a stroke.

Lying in his hospital bed, severely ill, Angie sensed Terry was "ready to go." She said: "He didn't want to live, needing to be cared for." But there was one person he wanted to see before he slipped away: Hettie.

Angie can still recall his reaction the moment Hettie came to his bedside at the hospital. Terry was still talking at that point and very much aware of his surroundings. "He had a big smile on his face as soon as he saw her," Angie said.

Things would be a lot different the next time Hettie visited Terry. That time around it wasn't just to say a hello. It was to say goodbye.

Experts have long debated whether dogs can sense if someone is dying. While the argument for this is inconclusive, there is ample evidence to suggest dogs are capable of reading body language and can pick up on human anxiety and sadness and react accordingly.

In a 2012 study published in the journal Animal Cognition, researchers examined the reactions of a group of dogs when put in two groups of people in two very different situations. These people were either owners of the dogs or complete strangers.

As part of the experiment, one group of the human participants was asked to either hum or talk while the other group had to pretend to cry.

Researchers found that, when given the choice between the two groups, regardless of which their owner was in, the dogs gravitated toward those they thought were crying. In these instances, the dogs appeared to exhibit empathic behavior.

Terry was heavily medicated the final time Hettie saw him to say goodbye. "I don't know if he knew we were there," Angie said.

But Hettie seemed to know something about what was going on. As Terry drew his final breaths that day, he was not alone. "She lay alongside him on his bed until he passed away," Angie said. "It was just so lovely, she's such a loving gentle dog and I just think that it's so special because of how much he loves dogs."

In a video posted to her TikTok, lovehettie, Angie recalled how, nine years ago, Terry changed their lives by bringing Hettie to them. How she lay beside the man she knew as grandpa as he died and how she hoped Terry found some form of "comfort" from having her there.