Singer/songwriter Fiona Apple has postponed her upcoming South American tour so she can nurse her dying dog through her final days.

The Criminal hitmaker was set to launch the tour in Brazil on 27 November (12), but she is now rescheduling each of her concerts in order to be by her dying Pitbull's side.

Apple rescued Janet, who has a tumour in her chest, almost 14 years ago from a dog fighting ring and the star reveals she just wants to be there for her "best friend" when she takes her final breath.

In a post on Facebook.com, she writes, "I know that she is coming close to (a) point where she will stop being a dog, and instead, be part of everything. She'll be in the wind, and in the soil, and the snow, and in me, wherever I go. I can't leave her now, please understand. If I go away... I'm afraid she'll die and I won't have the honor of singing her to sleep, of escorting her out...

"I need to do my damnedest to be there for that. Because it will be the most beautiful, the most intense, the most enriching experience of life I've ever known. When she dies. So I am staying home, and I am listening to her snore and wheeze, and reveling in the swampiest, most awful breath that ever emanated from an angel. And I am asking for your blessing."