The bond a man and his best friend shared was put on full display in Houston when a loyal dog waited for weeks for his owner to come home after he was killed while working at a convenience store. 
 
 Neighbors saw the German shepherd waiting at the front gate to the apartment complex where he lived with his owner, 54-year-old Hatem Abuharbid, who was killed during a robbery on Feb. 7. 
 
 "You could just tell that he was a lost dog," neighbor Cassandra Eubanks, who lives nearby, told ABC-owned station KTRK in Houston. 
 
 "He would follow the cars, and when he would realize that it was not his owner's car, he would just stand there and look helpless," Eubanks added. 
 
 Abuharbid was shot in the thigh when two men robbed the Kay-B convenience store where he worked in Houston, police said in a press release. The bullet pierced an artery in his leg, and he later died at the hospital. 
 
 But there was no way for Abuharbid's German shepherd to know any of this had happened. 
 
 "Of course he's confused, because he doesn't know what's going on, Eubanks said. "He hadn't seen his owner in two weeks." 
 
 KTRK 
 
 Residents at the apartment complex left food and water for the dog, but he wouldn't go near anyone, KTRK reported. It took a good Samaritan and her dog to coax the orphaned pup away from the apartment on Monday. 
 
 "It just broke my heart to hear that the poor animal lost his owner, his best friend," Maranda Perez told KTRK. 
 
 It took an hour for Perez, who answered a plea for help on social media, to gain the dog's trust. He ran up three flights of stairs before she was able to get close enough to put a leash on him, she said. 
 
 "He was still very shaken up whenever I touched him," she said. 
 
 Perez will foster the dog for a week, she said, adding that Abuharbid's brother would like to adopt the pup after that. 
 
 The investigation into Abuharbid's death is ongoing, police told ABC News. ||||| A loyal dog has been waiting patiently at his owner's door step for over two weeks, not realizing he's never coming back."You could just tell that he was a lost dog," said Cassandra Eubanks who lives at an apartment complex near Hobby Airport.Eubanks said every day, she would see the German shepherd at the front gates of the apartment complex, looking and searching for his owner to drive in."He would follow the cars and when he would realize that it was not his owner's car, he would just stand there and look helpless," said Eubanks.Neighbors said they would also see the dog waiting outside of an apartment door. Not long after, they understood why the dog was waiting for so long. His owner, and convenience store clerk was killed this past month during an armed robbery.How do you explain that to a dog?"Of course he's confused because he doesn't know what's going on. He hadn't seen his owner in two weeks," said Eubanks.The dog would not come close to anyone. Residents left behind food and water. Finally, after a plea on social media for help, Maranda Perez responded with her dog."As a German shepherd, he didn't stand a chance," said Perez. "It just broke my heart to hear that the poor animal lost his owner, his best friend."For nearly an hour, Perez slowly gained the dog's trust. The dog ran up three flights of stairs before it finally was able to trust Perez enough to put a leash around his neck."He was still very shaken-up whenever I touched him," added Perez.The next hurdle was putting the dog in her car. It was a struggle, but the pup finally had to let go.Perez said she can keep the dog for a week. The victim's brother said he would like to keep the dog after that.
– Loyalty between dog and man once again has no bounds, this time via a German shepherd who waited two weeks for an owner who'd never come home again. The dog was first spotted at an apartment complex near Houston's Hobby Airport, KTRK reports—sometimes on the steps, sometimes at the complex's front gates, sometimes camped out at one particular apartment's front door. "You could just tell that he was a lost dog," neighbor Cassandra Eubanks says. "He would follow the cars and when he would realize that it was not his owner's car, he would just stand there and look helpless." What the poor pup didn't realize: His owner, 54-year-old Hatem Abuharbid, had been killed in a robbery Feb. 7 at the convenience store where he worked, ABC News reports. "Of course he's confused, because he doesn't know what's going on," Eubanks says. The dog wouldn't approach neighbors who left food and water out for him, but he was eventually rescued by a woman who had heard about his plight on social media. "It just broke my heart to hear that the poor animal lost his owner, his best friend," Maranda Perez tells KTRK. She brought her own dog along and worked patiently for about an hour to make the now-ownerless dog comfortable around her. After following him up three flights of stairs, Perez was finally able to place a leash around his neck and get him, with some resistance, into her car. "He was still very shaken up whenever I touched him," she says. Perez says she'll take care of him for the next week or so before Abuharbid's brother takes the dog in. (This loyal pooch stuck by its owner's body until rescuers found them.)