Watch How "Very Frail but Full of Life" Senior Hospice Dog Asks for Cookie

A 19-year-old rescue hospice dog is finally getting the love and affection he so desperately needed for so much of his life.

Seymour, or "Pappy Seymour" as he is affectionately known, was in the most distressing of states when he first caught the eye of Chrissy Elder who runs Forgotten Now Family Rescue in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"He was being pulled into a shelter barely able to walk," Elder told Newsweek. "I stopped his 'owner' and asked if I could pay to take them to a vet instead. He said: 'no he needs to be euthanized.'"

Seymour was nearly 18 at the time and Elder was concerned he would struggle in a standard shelter setting, so was quick to intervene. "As soon as his owner signed him over to be surrendered I pulled him into our rescue," she said.

A little love can go a long way with a shelter dog. In 2018 a study published in Applied Animal Behavior Science found as little as 15 minutes of one-on-one petting was enough to boost the overall well-being of a shelter dog.

Elder said she was given little information about Seymour's life before then but his condition told its own story. "Seymour had massive amounts of tumors on his face that were infected and necrotic tissue," she said. "He was covered in flea dirt and smelled so bad I actually threw up in the car during our transport."

It was obvious that Seymour needed urgent medical care including surgery to remove the many growths that had formed. The prognosis from the vet she went to was not good.

"They didn't think he would survive it," she said. "Even if he did, they expected him to live only a few more weeks." Elder nevertheless asked them to proceed.

"I was thankful for even a few weeks because he would finally know life without those growths on his face and feel better," she said.

More than a year on and Seymour has defied the odds. "Seymour is very frail but also so full of life still," Elder said. "His favorite thing to do is anything with me. He naps in the sun. Seymour loves getting in his wagon and riding around. Honestly anything with me makes him give me the smile that melts my heart. We cuddle up and just love our time together."

In Elder, Seymour has found the one thing missing from his life before: unconditional love. It's a love he reciprocates—but Elder isn't the only thing Seymour loves about his new life. He also loves cookies. He really loves cookies.

"Seymour has what we call his old man prance," Elder said. "He still prances around my house and then stands directly at his cookie jars and barks at me until I give him his treats."

It's become something of a routine for the dog and his human companion and one that Elder captured on a video shared to TikTok. In the clip, Seymour lets out a raspy bark that's his way of letting Elder and the staff at the shelter know he's hungry. "He waits by the front door for me most days and he knows it's cookie time," Elder said. "Cookies and me...those are his two favorite things."

It's a remarkable turnaround for a dog who appeared to be, for want of a better phrase, on his last legs and one Elder is more than happy to facilitate. "I believe with my whole heart that every animal deserves to know as much love as possible. I could see the pain in his eyes and I know it all too well," she said. "I specialize in hospice fostering so I could see he needed me."

More than that though, she wanted to give Seymour an experience of something different to the pain he felt. "I needed to know he understood how loved he is despite the situation he was in," she said.

No one knows how long Seymour has left, but whether its days, months or years, Elder is going to make every ounce of it feel special. "Every month on the 11th, we throw him a party because that was the date when we got him," she said. "It's his favorite part of the month where we bake cookies together."

Elder hopes stories like Seymour's encourage others to do more for elderly dogs like him. "Hospice fostering is about giving some of your heart to restore theirs," she said. "It can be painful but it's worth it."

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