Hungry and Weak, Dog Stayed Beside Dead Owner for Weeks

A woman was found dead in her home in Budapest on Wednesday, having apparently died of natural causes weeks earlier, the BBC reports. Her dog hadn't left her side. “The dog was lying next to the dead body, and was so weak that she could not stand up," Gabor Pataki tells Reuters. "We had to drag her away." Pataki is the head of animal rescue group Allatmento Liga, which has taken in Zsazsa, a 9-year-old Havanese.

Neighbors called police this week after not seeing Zsazsa's 66-year-old owner for several weeks. When police entered the woman's home, they found Zsazsa extremely malnourished and dehydrated. Doctors say she would have died within days had she not been found. Now the lucky dog is recovering from her ordeal. "Yesterday she was on her feet again and even wagged her tail," Pataki says. (More dogs stories.)