Lost dog finds happy home with widower

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Jack Hill was a lost soul after his wife died of cancer in 2011.

"She passed away five years ago this February," Hill said.

Within 12 hours after her death, Hill endured another brutal blow. Their beloved cocer spaniel died, too.

"He developed cancer over a 24-hour period and was gone within three days," Hill said.

Silence took over his house.

"It was worse than being in a cemetery. You know, you sit here, and I got all this spare time that I could do things, and I don't want to do them," Hill said, "And I walked from room to room, you walk around and you look at all the empty spots."

These spots are empty no more. A white cocker spaniel named Benjamin was lost, too.

During a reporting assignment in Southeast Houston, Eyewitness News Reporter Kaitlin McCulley found a white cocker spaniel wandering through a construction site. McCulley took him to the vet, but was not able to find his owner.

Pampered Pet Inn boarded the dog for a week until Cocker Spaniel Rescue of East Texas took him in. They introduced the dog, "Benjamin," to Hill.

"It was an instantaneous bond," Hill said, "No questions, no thoughts, no hesitations."

Now, Benjamin has the life. He pretty much landed in a dog resort.

"He has the run of the house," Hill said. "All the couches are his, and he has two-thirds of a king-sized bed."

Hill said he felt his wife and his other previous dogs gave him a sign from above that Benjamin was the right fit.

"She's just up there grinning. Because she's got five to play with up there, so she said, 'Ok, now you got one to keep you occupied and leave me alone!'" Hill said.

Hill is keeping Benjamin on a tight leash.

"He's mine now!" Hill said.

And should Benjamin decide to run away again, Hill would tell him this:

"You're giving up the best life you could ever have. So come on back, and let's be pals," Hill said, "And, in fact, we are already."