The bond between animals and people is a special thing, but it is not limited to those that live in our homes.

According to the Huffington Post, a dying worker at a zoo in the Netherlands was taken back to work so the animals could say their final goodbyes.

As the man, only identified as Mario, was giving one last look, one of the giraffes bent down and gently touched his head, as if giving him a kiss.

“You could see him totally light up,” said Kees Veldboer, founder and director of Ambulance Wish Foundation, which arranged the farewell. “It’s very special to see that those animals recognize him, and sense that he isn’t doing well,” he told Rotterdam newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.

Mario said goodbye to colleagues after the animals. He spent nearly his entire life working at the zoo.