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Man ordering steak for dog’s last meal is stunned by restaurant staff’s kind response

Dogs are the perfect family members.

By

Tod Perry

By

Upworthy Staff

dogs, pets, Cheddar's, steak, last meals
A dog owner picked up a steak from Cheddar's for his dog's last meal.

There are a few things that are harder than saying goodbye to a pet; it can be as difficult as losing a close friend or family member. But for some reason, many people feel that they are not supposed to grieve as deeply for the loss of a pet as they do for a human. That’s why the kindness shown by the staff at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in Saint Joseph, Missouri, is so extraordinary.

CousinHomer, a country musician in Missouri, faced the terrible decision to put down his 13-year-old dog, Bella, back in 2023, Bella, so he wanted her last meal to be something truly special: a “big, juicy steak.” The staff at the restaurant asked him what he wanted for sides, and CousinHomer said he just wanted the steak. “They told me it would be the same price with or without them, so I might as well get them. I explained to them that I was having my dog, Bella, put to sleep later that day, and I wanted her last meal to be a nice, juicy steak,” CousinHomer said in his video.

It’s worth noting that Bella actually passed away in 2023, but it took Homer nearly two years before he felt ready to share the story publicly.

An incredible act of kindness

“When I showed up at the restaurant about 30 minutes later to pick up her food, the manager handed me the bag of food and said, ‘We are so sorry about your dog. This meal is on us.’ I really couldn’t believe it. It was so nice of them,” CousinHomer said. However, when he got home, he saw that they had done something even more special: the entire staff had signed a card that read: “Our deepest sympathy in the loss of your best friend. She’ll be waiting for you over the Rainbow Bridge.”

“So I just want to publicly say, thank you, Cheddar’s, for being so kind and thoughtful. It really meant the world to me,” CousinHomer concluded his video. But that wasn’t the end of the story. CousinHomer asked people to tag Cheddar’s in the post, so they know how many saw their act of kindness. Cheddar’s followed up with another act of kindness, which CousinHomer documented in a follow-up video.

After Cheddar’s was flooded with people tagging them in the story, they sent CousinHomer a branded fleece that he can wear like a snuggie. “May comfort wrap around you like a warm Honey Butter Croissant. Your Cheddar’s family is here for you, Cousin,” the company wrote in the comments.

Why the loss of a pet hurts so much

Losing a pet can be just as hard as losing a human loved one, but there is one thing that’s uniquely painful about putting down a pet. No matter how much we know we made the right decision, it still won’t stop us from ruminating over it.

“You do that because emotional pain hurts just like physical pain. And we are hard-wired to recognize pain as a teacher,” Sarah Hoggan, DVM, a veterinarian and pet loss grief advocate, said in a TED Talk. “Our body has reflexes that will pull our hand off a hot stove. We have pulled ourselves to safety even before we know the burn has occurred. Unfortunately, no such instant rescue mechanism exists for emotional pain. That means we need to study the events that led to the pain, to try to learn something from it and avoid it in the future.”

Ultimately, CousinHomer is going to be in a period of grief for quite a while, but it’s nice to know that there are a whole lot of people who recognized his pain and let him know that it was completely warranted to need some love after the death of a pet. At a moment when you have to make an incredibly difficult decision, having people understand your pain can make all the difference.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

 

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    Photo credit: Canva – Hair getting cut (left) Deer in forest (right)
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    Hair salons in Europe are dumping their clippings into forests and it’s miraculous

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    Hair salons generate an enormous amount of waste each year. Most clippings are simply thrown away, even though human hair is remarkably durable because it is made largely from keratin, a fibrous protein that breaks down slowly over time.

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    A tree sapling, Canva

    Many forests depend on saplings surviving long enough to mature and replenish the ecosystem. However, young trees often struggle in areas with large deer populations. Deer are known to chew on bark, especially during seasons when food is scarce. Because saplings have thin bark and delicate trunks, even small amounts of damage can stunt their growth or kill them entirely.

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    Unlike plastic guards, the hair fibers gradually decompose and return nutrients to the soil. As the keratin breaks down, it releases nitrogen and amino acids that can support plant growth. That nutrient-rich quality is one reason some gardeners have long experimented with placing hair into compost piles or using it directly in garden beds. Knowing this, Capillum sells its eco-friendly hair mulch to home gardeners interested in more sustainable growing methods. 

    Human hair is more useful than most people realize

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    A small clump of hair, Canva

    This is far from the first time Capillum has found creative uses for human hair. The company previously mixed hair with wool to help absorb pollutants from water because both materials naturally attract oil. 

    Around the world, scientists and environmental groups have similarly explored using recycled hair for oil spill cleanup, agricultural mats, and composting projects. Some studies have even examined whether hair fibers could eventually help create insulation materials or textiles.

    All this to say: a routine haircut may not seem connected to forest conservation, yet thousands of discarded strands now helping protect young trees suggest otherwise. This is a brilliant example of humanity using creativity for good, and how making just one element of human life less wasteful can have a profound impact. 

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    About those unusual paws in the photos

    Of course, the internet’s going to internet, and some people apparently looked at Ricky’s photobook a couple of years after the fact and complained that it was AI generated because of the way Ricky’s paws looked. However, as Grass shared in a video in 2024, those paws aren’t due to AI. They’re just Ricky’s real-life deformities that, ironically, make him appear AI-generated in the photobook. (It’s also worth mentioning that the photobook video came out well before AI-generated technology became available to the masses.)

    “Ricky’s legs are actually shaped like candy canes,” Grass explains. “That’s not AI. That’s inbreeding. Spay and neuter your cats.”

    You can find more videos of Ricky and the animals Grass fosters on her TikTok channel here.

    This article originally appeared three years ago and has been updated.

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    The earth is in our hands. Canva Photos.

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    This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

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    The comments are absolutely sending people

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    This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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    This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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    A firefighter using a hose, left, and bees, right.
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    Firefighters broke out their hoses to save 25 million bees from an overheating truck

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    This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

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    Shocked woman learns bookworms are real insects. Now everyone is horrified.

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    “Bookworm” is a phrase often used to describe someone who enjoys reading books. While the term is endearing, people may not realize that a bookworm is also an actual insect. No, not the cute cartoon inchworm wearing glasses and a bow tie. A literal bug that is anything but cute—and one woman is horrified by the discovery.

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    bookworms, books, reading, real bookworms, bookworm insects
    Bookworm and bookworm damage. Photo credit: Dominic Mason/Wikimedia Commons

    This warning prompted Smith to look into what people were saying, since she was unaware that an insect by that name existed. What she discovered in her research scarred both her and unsuspecting viewers alike.

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    bookworms, books, reading, real bookworms, bookworm insects
    Old books. Photo credit: Canva

    Smith grows animated, loudly saying, “You mean to tell me there’s an actual insect called a bookworm?” She covers her mouth with her hand as she looks on in horror at pictures of the small, yellowish, clear bugs eating holes through a book’s pages. The now-grossed-out woman looks at her dusty books with disgust as she wonders aloud whether they’re harboring the small insects.

    She demands to know if she was the only person unaware that bookworms are actual insects. She was not. Bookworms are not common knowledge, according to commenters:

    “Literally have a degree in literature and this is news to me”

    “You know what sometimes I think we have enough information”

    “nah because what do you mean i now have to go through the hundreds of books i own?”

    “OMG TARYN NO 😭 I could have gone my whole life without knowing this but now that I know, I’m equal parts grateful and HORRIFIED 😭😭😭”

    “Say what now?!?! How big/ small are these buggers?? Is a magnified glass needed or can the naked eye spot them?!?! Ay dios mío 📚 🔍👀 💭 🐛 😬”

    “Omg omg omg i must burn all of my books with fire I fear 😭”

    bookworms, books, reading, real bookworms, bookworm insects
    Old book with bookworm damage. Photo credit: Ragesoss/Wikimedia Commons

    Bookworms don’t actually refer to just one insect, though. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the term “bookworm” is used to describe hundreds of different insects that feed on books:

    “[The insects include] booklouse, silverfish, powderpost beetle, spider beetle, common furniture beetle, Mexican book beetle, paper worm (larvae of the paper beetle or moth), and larder beetle. These insects are not necessarily interested in eating paper, but they can damage paper in their attempts to reach other materials. They actively feed on leather and cloth bindings, starch paste, animal glues, paper, and cardboard, creating tunnels and holes through these materials.”

    bookworms, books, reading, real bookworms, bookworm insects
    A woman reading an old book. Photo credit: Canva

    One librarian who viewed Smith’s Reel offered advice for buying old books:

    “Librarian here. We have a whole machine we ‘cook’ the books for days if any sign of a bug is found. I would not trust freezing them. Actually I would call your local Library and ask for advice! Hopefully you are all good though. The first step is to flip through and if you see any bugs or little bits of flecks all over that kind of look like dirt, put that book outside in the garage.”

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