Grieving Dog Owner Stunned By Touching Surprise After Trying to Return Unused Pet Food

ViktoriaSapata via Deposit Photos

If you’ve ever experienced a pet dying, you know how painful it can be. They’re a member of your family, after all. One of the best things to have during a time of grief like this is a support system. And sometimes, there’s no better support system than the one that comes in the most unexpected place.

A woman named Anna Brose recently unexpectedly lost her 5-year-old lab/German short-haired pointer mix named Gus due to stomach bloat. She was absolutely devastated.

“Gus was a sweet, loving soul,” Brose told FOX Television Stations. “He was very nervous when we first adopted him, and had a lot of fears — new people, thunder, balloons — but he worked so hard to overcome those fears in order to be close to us. He just wanted to be in physical contact with one of us at all times.”

Because Gus’ death was unexpected, she had bought him dog food from Chewy—a bag of dog food Gus never got around to chowing down on. She decided to try and return it, since it was unopened and she had no use for it.

Brose got a hold of one of the company’s customer service agents, Jordan, who was very apologetic about her loss. He gave her a full refund and she didn’t even have to go through the trouble of mailing it back—Jordan just told her to donate the food to a local shelter.

As if that wasn’t enough good customer service, Jordan decided to go above and beyond and sent Brose a box of flowers to offer his condolences about Gus.

“It was so touching and unexpected to receive the flowers from Chewy,” she said. “It absolutely blew me away. I’ve always had great customer service from them, but this was a whole other level. It meant so much to us that they knew and cared that Gus was gone.”

Brose gave them the credit they deserved via her Twitter page, commenting: “I contacted @Chewy last week to see if I could return an unopened bag of my dog’s food after he died” she posted. “They 1) gave me a full refund, 2) told me to donate the food to the shelter, and 3) had flowers delivered today with the gift note signed by the person I talked to??”

Chewy even responded back! “It’s the least we could do, Anna. We hope these flowers will help to keep your spirits up,” they told her.

In a statement to FOX, a representative for Chewy explained that they like to create personal connections with their customers.

“Each interaction with a customer is an opportunity to delight them in a moment of joy or provide empathy in a time of grief,” said Andrew Stein, senior director of Chewy’s customer service. “These acts of enduring companionship, which include sending hand-written holiday cards, hand-painted pet portraits and sympathy flowers, are embedded in our culture and allow us to create deeply personal and emotional connections through all the highs and lows of the pet parent journey.”

How sweet was it for Chewy to send this customer flowers for her loss?