A heartbreaking scene from Suzhou, Anhui Province, China, captured the painful behavior of a mother dog after two of her newborn puppies died following complications around the time of their birth. Instead of simply walking away after the puppies were buried, the grieving mother repeatedly returned to the shallow grave and dug through the soil to reach them again.

According to the dog’s owner, Mr. Qin, the two puppies did not survive, and their bodies were buried after the tragedy. But the mother dog appeared unable to accept their absence, reportedly retrieving them from the burial place as many as five or six times.

Footage from the incident shows the mother gently carrying one of the puppies in her mouth while her owner stays close and comforts her. When he tries to take the puppy away, she appears reluctant to release it, continuing to remain close to the tiny body as though her maternal instincts were telling her not to leave her baby behind.

Another emotional moment shows her beside the shallow grave where the two puppies had been buried. After disturbing the soil to reach them, she repeatedly licks the puppies and stays beside them, displaying behavior that viewers interpreted as an intense attachment to her lost litter.

Perhaps the most moving part of the footage comes when the mother dog walks along a road while carefully carrying one of the puppies in her mouth. She does not treat the body like an object; instead, she carries it with the same instinctive care a mother dog might use when moving a living newborn to safety.

Mr. Qin can also be seen gently petting and comforting her during the ordeal. Eventually, he carefully removes the puppy from her mouth and holds the small, motionless body in his hand, while the mother remains nearby.

Although it is impossible to know exactly what the dog understood about what had happened, her repeated attempts to return to the puppies demonstrated just how powerful maternal attachment can be in animals. Her unwillingness to stay away from the burial site made the footage especially difficult for animal lovers to watch.

The fate of any other puppies from the litter was unclear from the information available. What remained unmistakable, however, was the mother’s persistent desire to stay close to the two babies she had lost.

For many people, her story is a painful reminder that the bonds animals form with their young can be remarkably strong. She could not save her puppies, but even after losing them, she kept returning—digging through the earth and carrying them close, as though a mother’s instinct simply would not allow her to leave them behind.