You can read the full story on Reddit, which explores at length how the husband managed to sneak a 50-pound Australian Shepherd into the hospital room inside of a suitcase.

The ordeal starts with the writer’s wife, who was committed to hospital after a very invasive surgery. Unfortunately, the procedure didn’t go as well as expected, and within days she wasn’t eating, drinking, and living entirely off of an IV and pain pills.

She was still able to speak, however, and in a rare moment of coherence requested her husband sneak the dog into her hospital room so that they could visit “one more time.”

Though the couple’s dog is large, she actually fit quite well packed inside a suitcase. Of course, the lid remained unzipped throughout the pair’s ride to the hospital. When they arrived in the parking lot, he calmly “explained” to the dog that she would see her mommy when he re-opened the case in just a few minutes.

“Unbelievably, she never whimpered, barked, or whined,” the husband recalled. “When I walked past the station nurses, I told them I was simply bringing items to make my wife more comfortable,” he said, recalling how the attendants ushered him inside.

The man’s wife was fast asleep as he smuggled their precious cargo into the room, but once he opened the suitcase, the dog jumped onto the hospital bed to snuggle, taking care to avoid the IV and other wires.

She arranged herself around the patient in a way that she could make direct eye contact, then remained completely still. Twenty minutes later, his wife woke up, quietly moaning with pain.

Somehow aware that barking would draw unwanted attention, the Australian Shepherd started moaning as well, while delivering puppy kisses all over her face.

The man’s wife hugged the dog for almost an hour, with a huge smile on her face, until a nurse entered the room.

However, the nurse was so touched by this heartwarming display that she promised not to blow their cover.

When his wife finally fell asleep, her devoted husband re-packed the suitcase, and the dog crawled back inside without a peep.

Just days later, the woman passed away. “Now, whenever I grab the suitcase,” her husband sadly recalls, “the dog thinks we are doing to see her again.”