I had sent a link of this blog to my aunt, my dad's sister who new Stewie also. This is her reply to me. She talks about the devotion dogs have for their owners. I think that you will find this interesting...

Nice. I think he (Stewie) was your dad's guardian angel. He KNEW your dad had cancer. That's why he devoted his own life to guarding him. He KNEW Rocket (my aunt's boxer) had cancer. I've never seen him react with any other dog the way he did with Rocket. He would just lie beside her, making sure she wasn't in distress, walk with her quietly and protectively, and would often lick her ear - the side where the lymphoma was first detected. Amazing.

I have a friend in Montana who lost his wife two years ago to Multiple Myeloma - the same cancer that took your Grandpa - and they had a service dog for her - an Australian Shepherd. Alamo, the Aussie, devoted his life to Debbie and when she passed, turned all his devotion to John, my friend.

The day before Thanksgiving, he went missing. My friend had put him in the back yard on a rope at about 9 AM - something he ALWAYS did - after their morning run, and Alamo would stay there for about an hour, enjoying the outdoor smells. But when he went to bring him in at 10, he was gone. . . rope and all. He immediately put up flyers and posted on Facebook and did everything he could think of. No Alamo.

But this story has a happy ending. On Tuesday of this week, 17 days later, he found him standing in the yard of the house they had originally rented in the little town of Hamilton, Montana when they moved there in the summer of '09. He didn't have the rope, and he had lost some weight, but he is fine - and he is home. Dogs ARE amazing. Our vet told us that Rocket was a once-in-a-lifetime dog. So was Stu. We're all a little better for having these amazing souls be a part of our lives.