Loyal dog waits two months at hospital door for dead owner

But sadly, the dog's owner was never to return as he died after being admitted to the hospital in Antequera in early November.

For two months the mongrel, a bitch around eight months old, survived on scraps from hospital visitors and staff until she was finally taken in by an animal rescue centre and found a foster home.

Photo: Patitas Andaluzas

“She spent days and days waiting at the door of the hospital not realizing that her master would never emerge to take her home,” explained a spokeswoman from Patitas Andaluzas, the animal rescue charity that eventually took the dog in.

“Thanks to social media, her story has been spread and she has found a foster home in Madrid and is now looking for a permanent home.”

The Spanish mongrel has been named Hachiko after a Japenese hound who famously waited years at a Shibuya station for his owner in a story made into a Hollywood film starring Richard Gere.