Marley the Labrador retriever was always the dog dictionary definition of a true companion.
David Tschirhart got the dog as a puppy, and as the little pooch turned into an older adult canine, Marley saw Tschirhart through many of life’s exciting and overwhelming chapters: graduation, moving cross country, marriage.
“He made many moves with my wife Alicia and I. He was always aware and adaptable. He learned to live in a tiny Manhattan apartment,” Tschirhart, an attorney in San Diego, California, told PEOPLE.
Marley’s most amazing and heroic moment of awareness came in 2014, when he was 12 years old and towards the end of his life.