A farmer left devasted by the loss of his beloved dog fell to his knees in tears when he was surprised with a puppy after months of hoping for a new farm companion. Spencer Heafner, from Godfrey, Illinois, was reeling after the loss of his German Shephard, Bailey, who he adopted in 2014. Bailey had been by Spencer's side through the birth of his and his wife's twins – who Bailey always protected – and was always by Spencer’s side to round up cattle on the family’s farm. Over time, Spencer grew to see Bailey as somewhat of a best friend, only for the German Shepherd to suffer sudden health issues, completely out of the blue. Bailey's health started to decline rapidly, and soon she didn't interact, struggled to see and hear, and had no real quality of life on the farm, Spencer's wife, Jamie, said. Just before her 10th birthday, Bailey passed away, leaving Spencer more emotional than Jamie had expected, as he often welled up when looking back through old pictures and videos of his sidekick. Jamie knew she had to do something – and so she thought back to a previous conversation she had with her husband, when Spencer declared his fondness of blue heeler dogs. She decided to research the dogs online, and, two months after Bailey's passing, was able to find a breeder who had a puppy available. With Spencer's birthday in June, Jamie decided to plan an early surprise for her husband, which involved him going on an adventure around their farm. On May 10, Jamie captured Spencer's search on video, before her husband eventually made it to a box covered in bright wrapping paper.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00He's a blue healer.
00:03And he'd truly turn out to be a healer, after all.
00:08Whenever we first bought, you know, the farm that we have now, I knew right off the bat
00:12I had won a dog.
00:14So he got Bailey, the German Shepherd.
00:17We were best friends right off the bat.
00:18If I was outside doing anything, she was by my side.
00:21It didn't matter what I was doing, if I was on a tractor or driving a truck, she was there
00:25with me.
00:26She would even help round up cattle, even though she wasn't very good at it.
00:31And when Jamie and Spencer's family got a little bigger the next year...
00:36She fell in love with those kids immediately.
00:38She watched them and protected them.
00:40She would not let those kids out of her sight.
00:43But just before her 10th birthday, Bailey's health suddenly declined.
00:47It happened so fast, it was kind of hard to process everything.
00:50She was so, she was such a good companion to me and the family.
00:54It just kind of hit me harder than I expected, I guess.
00:58After Spencer mentioned how much he missed Bailey as a farm companion so many times and
01:04kept mentioning, you know, how he missed his dog and his little sidekick, it just kind
01:08of made me realize how much Bailey meant to him.
01:10And I knew how much he would love to have another dog, another puppy, especially being
01:15the blue heeler that he had been wanting for some time now.
01:19And it would make the perfect early birthday gift too.
01:25He's got a good boy.
01:27He's a good boy.
01:29He's a good boy.
01:31He's a good boy.
01:33He's a good boy.
01:35He's a good boy.
01:37He's a good boy.
01:47Whenever I saw that box and read that card immediately, a whole bunch of emotions came
01:52to me that I was not expecting.
01:59He's a blue keeler.
02:07The emotions that I was hoping he would show actually came through.
02:11It then got me very emotional.
02:15It hit me harder than I thought it was going to, which, you know, obviously
02:18we're talking about a dog, but dogs are almost like another kid to us.
02:22I've got a great man for being able to show emotion and be so,
02:27you know, into a moment like that.
02:32So many guys will just try to hide that and they don't want to show that.
02:35But like he, obviously he's a farmer.
02:37He's very tough.
02:38He's, you know, can fix anything.
02:40But at the same time, a puppy can bring him to tears because
02:43there's so much meaning to that.
02:45And they're hoping little Maverick can also bring him some help around the
02:49farm, just like Bailey used to do.
02:51But it may just take a little getting used to.