Illinois (USA) - This moving moment of grief is not only heartbreaking for his mother: little Mack (3) from Illinois recently had to cope with the death of his best friend on four paws. Dog lady Shenzi had faithfully stood by his side until the end, they were one heart and one soul. Mack's mother recently observed him sitting in front of the fridge in the kitchen. She recorded what the three-year-old was doing there on video.

In the bittersweet clip, which has been available on TikTok since this month, you can first see a few scenes in which Mack and Shenzi can be seen cuddling.

Then there is a leap in time: in the last scene, the dog is no longer there. Instead, Mack is sitting in front of the fridge with a photo of the deceased dog hanging on it.

The boy looks at the picture intently, seeming to ponder why he now has to do without Shenzi - and where she is now. The touching work has reached 1.3 million clicks on TikTok since May 7.

The comment column in particular, with more than 2,200 posts, clearly shows how moved many viewers are by the scene.

In an interview with Newsweek, Mack's mother has now explained how this moment came about and what happened afterwards.

She discovered her son in the kitchen and watched him for a while before deciding to capture part of the situation on video, Erin Sullivan told the US magazine.

"It was a very beautiful moment. Because I knew it was his way of grieving for her," the mother explained. "He wasn't crying. But the way he analyzed the photo made me think about how much he missed her at that moment," she added.

However, she didn't leave her little boy alone with his grief for long. After a minute or so, she went to him and gave him a hug. But the loss of the dog is not only hard for Mack.

"She's still such a presence in our lives , and sometimes it hits me like a punch in the gut that she's gone because I can still feel her around me," Sullivan said.

She hopes that she will feel Shenzi's presence for years to come. Because in a way, that is very comforting for her.