Just days after Samuel Johnson revealed that his sister, Connie, is “actively dying” in hospice care and too sick for social media, the actor surprised her with a visitor too cute to handle.
Hercules, a white alpaca, attended the hospice to comfort Connie and even share a sweet kiss.
The docile animal belongs to Alpaca Therapy, a charity organisation that seeks to comfort those in hospice care as well as others who are homeless, ill, suffering from mental health issues or just in need of company.
Samuel posted photos of the visit to Facebook and Instagram, showing a picture of himself beaming in a photo with Hercules.
“Visiting Con in the hospice and lo and behold? Is it a llama or an alpaca?” he captions the image on Instagram.
“Cheered everyone up none the less. Another winning play from the legends at Clare Holland House.”
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Hercules looked less than impressed by Samuel’s selfie, but was devastatingly sweet and gentle when visiting Connie.
An image posted to Facebook shows Connie curled up in bed, reaching up to pat the alpaca’s soft coat as a handler carefully holds the lead in place.
Hercules took over comforting duties after his much-loved predecessor, Honeycomb, passed away last year.
Preparing Hercules for his public visits is no mean feat.
“My wife Linda has the unenviable task of grooming Hercules for these visits to the hospice,” Nils, founder of Alpaca Therapy, writes in a Facebook post.
“For almost an hour she stands outside in the freezing cold drying and fluffing up his coat with a hair dryer. I couldn’t do this without her.”
A true larrikin, Samuel will try anything to make his sister smile. After Connie stopped responding to cancer treatment earlier this year, it seems nothing can prolong her life, but her family is determined to make her last days happy and full of love.