The funeral for an elderly woman who devoted her life to caring for strays has apparently been attended by a band of her beloved animals, the Huffington Post reports.

Margarita Suarez fed up to 20 needy strays cats and dogs every day. She passed away in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca earlier this month and her coffin was taken to a local chapel ahead of her funeral.

But Suarez’s loved-ones found they were not alone in mourning her – with several stray dogs finding their way to the chapel as if hoping to pay their own respects.

The family say they asked staff if the dogs were local to the area but were told they did not recognise them, leading daughter Patricia Urrutia to assume they were the animals Suarez had been feeding near her home.

Urrutia told Nortre Digital the dogs kept a vigil throughout the night, describing the event as “something wonderful on the saddest day of my life”.