Woman Opens Dog Hospice Where She Spends The Last Days With Abandoned Dogs

As sad as it may sound, our canine friends are just temporary visitors in our lives – however, we are usually their whole life. And the least we can do during our pets’ last moments is stay with them, making sure that when their time comes, they know they were not just pets to us – they were part of the family.

Sadly, saying goodbye to your senior dog can be a heartbreaking experience not everyone can handle. That’s just one of the reasons why some old or terminally ill pets get abandoned. However, like a ray of hope, one woman is making sure all abandoned animals spend their final days living life to the fullest.

Nicola Coyle (not pictured) is a retired nurse who established The Grey Muzzle Canine Hospice to take care of abandoned old, terminally ill or stray dogs. She runs the animal shelter from her own home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

Nicola takes the adorable dogs through McDonald’s drive-thru and even takes them to the local pub for a nice steak dinner.

“We’ll only take them in if the vet says they’ve got less than six months to live, so we’re focusing on end of life care,” said the former nurse in an interview with Metro. “I think the longest I’ve had one is around one year in my dog hotel and the shortest was about two weeks.”

“I don’t know when their birthdays are so we make sure we throw all of them a birthday party,” says Nicola. “If they’re well enough, we take them for a day at the seaside, they get fish and chips on the beach and ice cream.”

“We all get very attached to these cute dogs, it’s very emotionally intense and we do mourn and grieve for them,” says Nicola. “We do need to have breaks between them.”

Just because a dog’s fate is decided, doesn’t mean it should be abandoned. Quite the contrary – the final days of their lives should be made as special as possible. And thanks to people like Nicola, these dogs get to spend their final days feeling important and loved before departing to Doggy Heaven.