Woman whose dog died tries to return unused pet food — and gets a sweet surprise

You're going to make us teary eyed.

A longstanding practice at the company is to acknowledge the loss of customers' pets with flowers or paintings.

Anna Brose discovered that when she tried to return a bag of dog food. She contactedChewy last week to see if she could return an open bag of her dog's food. I was given a full refund, was told to donate the food to the shelter, and had flowers delivered today with a gift note signed by the person I talked to?

I contacted @Chewy last week to see if I could return an unopened bag of my dog’s food after he died. 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?? 😭🥹

— Anna Brose, MSc (@alcesanna) June 15, 2022

Brose followed up with a picture of her now-departed dog. She wrote that she appreciated all the kind messages and shared stories in the comments. Guts would have been destroyed.

It's the least we can do, Anna. We hope the flowers will help you.

It's the least we could do, Anna. We hope these flowers will help to keep your spirits up. 🌹💙

— Chewy (@Chewy) June 15, 2022

This is a great example of customer service being turned into promotion. It seems to be meaningful to pet owners who have died.

The animal shelters are taking notice. I work at an animal shelter. This isn't fake. People reach out to donate when Chewy tells them to go to a shelter. I can't say what this means to my shelter. It's truly a gift.

"Showing up for our customers during important milestones in their pet parenting journey is core to our DNA," Andrew Stein, senior director for customer service at Chewy, told TODAY.

Sometimes it isn't flowers. We will forever be grateful for the painting you guys sent us after we had to put daisy down as we still had other dogs.

Stein says that what you have seen is representative of the responses they get. Whenever we see a customer post, we all get excited and start forwarding it around.

For many customers, their pet is a primary companion in life, and when they lose their fur baby, they may need someone to lean on. They are so grateful that Chewy is a part of their family.