Tucker Budzyn, the golden retriever who captured millions of hearts online, has died just days after his family shared his cancer diagnosis.
Courtney Budzyn, Tucker’s owner, broke the devastating news in an emotional Instagram video on Saturday. On the video she holds what looks like a box of his ashes and could barely get the words out.
On August 30, Courtney had told fans Tucker was fighting lymphoma. She sounded hopeful at the time, saying he was responding well and heading toward remission.
Then things took a turn for the worse, and it happened fast. The cancer had spread into his intestine, and while treatment was shrinking it, that left a hole behind, one that got infected almost overnight.
“We woke up, and we rushed him in, and we thought we were going to beat the infection,” Courtney said. “He was so weak.”
They tried antibiotics and fluids, but Tucker’s temperature wouldn’t come down and eventually the family had to let him go.
Tucker was a beloved mega-celebrity
Tucker came home in June 2018 as an eight-week-old puppy.
A had a following of more than 27 million people across platforms, 11.8 million on TikTok alone, plus millions more on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
It got big enough that Courtney and her husband Mike left their jobs, hers cleaning houses, his in civil engineering, to run Tucker’s accounts full time. Fans loved his goofy expressions, his obsession with the pool, and his relationship with his “son,” a dog named Todd.
“He was part of my soul”
Courtney didn’t hold back about what Tucker meant to her.
“He literally saved my life,” she said. “There was nothing in this world I wouldn’t have done for him, he was literally part of me. He was part of my soul. It feels like I lost a body part.”
She also acknowledged how many other people were grieving right alongside her. “I’m so sorry, guys. I know he was yours, too,” she said, explaining she’d held off posting because she wasn’t ready to be on camera while still so broken, even as messages kept pouring in asking how Tucker was doing.
“I don’t know how to live, but I have to,” she said. “He didn’t lie by my side for all those years just for me to give up.”
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