Goodbye, Tucker: the golden retriever who made millions smile

There was nothing particularly sophisticated about the video that helped turn Tucker Budzyn into an internet star.

He was a fluffy golden retriever puppy, barely a few months old, confronted with an ice cube. Tucker pawed at it, puzzled over it, and behaved exactly as a curious puppy might.

His human Courtney Budzyn created an Instagram account in 2018 shortly after bringing him back to her home in Michigan, United States, at eight weeks old. The profile was largely to share his antics with friends and family.

The ice-cube clip went viral the following month. By six months old, Tucker already had some 60,000 followers – marking the beginning of something neither Courtney nor her husband Mike could have imagined.

Over the next eight years, Tucker became one of the world’s best-known dogs, attracting millions of followers across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

His success eventually grew large enough for Courtney and Mike to leave their respective jobs and devote themselves to Tucker and his online world full-time.

But numbers only partly explain why people loved him. Tucker had the sort of face onto which humans could project an entire conversation: soulful eyes, extravagant expressions and an apparent opinion about almost everything.

His videos turned the ordinary business of being a dog into comedy. There were food tastings, swimming sessions, family adventures and playful “conversations” supplied by Courtney, who gave voice to what Tucker might supposedly have been thinking.

Fans have described Tucker’s videos as a source of comfort during lonely or difficult periods, while his expressive personality made people who had never met him feel oddly familiar with him.

Later, Tucker shared the spotlight with Todd, another golden retriever affectionately presented to fans as his “son”. Their wrestling, mischief and domestic adventures became part of an online world followers returned to again and again.

A diagnosis, then hope

On Aug 30, Tucker’s fans and followers were shaken when Courtney revealed that, at age eight, he had been diagnosed with lymphoma about two weeks earlier.

There was reason for optimism. He had begun chemotherapy and, after initially responding well, was considered to be in partial remission. Despite some side effects, Tucker was still walking, swimming and enjoying the things that made him happy.

Courtney said her priority was his quality of life. And in what would become an unexpectedly precious gift, Tucker’s final weeks were filled with remarkably ordinary pleasures.

He went to the park several times and made a point of marking just about every tree he could find. He went swimming. His first leap into the pool on both occasions was still strong and enthusiastic.

He wrestled with Todd in the backyard, rolled in the grass and felt the breeze through his fur. He even went rollerblading with Courtney. And twice a day, there was chicken – to accompany his medication, although Tucker presumably had few objections to that arrangement.

Then everything changed with frightening speed. According to Courtney, as treatment successfully attacked the cancer in his intestine, a hole had been left in the affected area, resulting in an infection that seemed to strike overnight.

The family rushed him for emergency veterinary care. He was weak and was given antibiotics and fluids, but his fever continued to rise. They could not bring it down.

On Sept 2, his family had to make the decision every pet owner dreads: to let him go. He was only eight.

Three days later, Courtney appeared before the audience that had followed Tucker almost his entire life. She told followers that Tucker was gone.

In the tearful tribute, she spoke of having tried everything she could to save him. She also struggled to describe the scale of the loss, saying Tucker had become “part of my soul” and that losing him felt like losing part of herself.

Yet amidst the grief, she returned to those final weeks – the parks, swimming, grass, chicken, and time with Todd. There was consolation in knowing that Tucker had still been Tucker.

Fans responded to his death by filling his social media pages with condolences and memories, many describing Tucker as one of the first pet influencers they had followed, and recalling how reliably his videos had made them smile.

His story will also continue in another form. A children’s picture book, “Of All the Sniffs I Love the Most”, is scheduled for release on Nov 17.

Written around Tucker’s adventures and his bond with his family, its message is ultimately a simple one: adventures may come and go, but being close to those you love matters most.

Tucker spent eight years teaching millions of strangers that joy could be found in the simple pleasures in life. And perhaps that is why saying goodbye to an internet-famous dog feels so personal to so many.

Somewhere along the way, he stopped feeling like somebody else’s golden retriever and became, in some small way, everybody’s dog.

Learn all about Tucker Budzyn here.

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