If you’ve ever lost a pet, you know the massive crater it can leave in your life. Pets are part of the family, both for the general population and A-list celebrities alike. Recently, the star of The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco, revealed the drastic measures she had to take for her recently deceased dog Shirley.
Cuoco, who has almost 8 million followers on her Instagram page, shared an emotional video captioned “In honor of my Shirley.” In the video, she explained why she made the difficult decision to put her beloved canine in a new home.
“There’s something that’s been weighing on me for a while that I’m ready to share now,” she said in the video. “I think it’s important to be honest about everything animal related. Anyone that knows anything about me knows my love for animals.”
She goes on to tell “a little story” about Shirley. She explains that she had the dog for “many, many, many years” and then all of sudden she stopped showing the dog on her social media. Then came the questions, she said, because “it’s very unlike me to just stop posting about a dog that I’ve had since she was six weeks old.”
The problem was a personal and difficult one. When Shirley couldn’t find a way to get along with Cuoco’s fiancé Tom Pelphrey’s dog, things quickly came to a head.
“And when the love of my life came into my life, Tom, who is also a mega dog lover, and he moved across the country with his beautiful German Shepherd, Blue, a couple years ago, unfortunately, Blue and Shirley started getting into some mega fights,” she said.
The fights were so bad, she said, that Shirley appeared like she was all and all out to “kill Blue.” This fighting spirit continued with most other dogs. While Shirley wasn’t violent toward people, Cuoco got to the point where she was worried another animal would get hurt. This meant that Shirley was going to have to be rehomed.
“I loved her so much, but I was really scared,” she said. “I didn’t want something really bad to happen or possibly a person accidentally be there and get hurt.”
Cuoco went on to explain how she didn’t just randomly give Shirley away. She wanted to make sure that she went to the right home. “I didn’t want her to end up in a home that didn’t understand her because she is so special and I’ve had her for so long,” she said.
Fortunately, she found a home for Shirley with Cuoco’s pet handler Tony and his wife, who “have loved her so so much.” She called the decision to rehome her dog an “excruciating” one. Here’s where the story gets a bit more depressing.
Recently, Shirley was diagnosed with “a very aggressive bone cancer that came on very quickly.” Being 14, Cuoco said Shirley got to live an “unbelievable” life, with an “amazing last for years with Tony and Angie. I am devastated that she has gone over the rainbow bridge.”
This doesn’t mean Shirley will be forgotten. Cuoco will continue the dog’s legacy with her continued charity work for animals on her ranch in Thousand Oaks, California, where “anything with four legs” is welcome.