Kaley Cuoco Shares the Sad Fate of the Dog She Re-Homed After It Didn't Get Along With Tom Pelphrey's Dog
Kaley Cuoco remembers the life of her pet dog Shirley in a touching video message this week, with the Flight Attendant and Big Bang Theory actress revealing that the pet recently passed away after Cuoco had earlier made the "excruciating decision" to re-home Shirley after she started dating now-fiancé Tom Pelphrey in 2022.
Shirley had nearly reached 14 years of age, Cuoco says, but noted that, before the pet's recent death — and after Pelphrey had moved across the country with his dog, Blue — Shirley "just could not live with us with how she was behaving, and I loved her so much, but I was really scared. And I didn't want something really bad to happen or possibly a person accidentally be there and get hurt."
Cuoco is a noted pet lover who started the pet brand Oh Norman! last year. The brand is named after another of Cuoco's late pets, who died in 2021, also at the age of 14. Shirley died from "a very aggressive bone cancer that came on very quickly," Cuoco says.
Before that, however, Cuoco made the difficult decision to re-home Shirley after the dog started getting into fights with Blue, in addition to other dogs. Luckily, Cuoco's dog handler and his family were able to take the dog in and give it a good home in its final days.
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Clearly, Cuoco appreciated the welcoming gesture, as she explained in her post that finds her breaking down in tears over the recent death of Shirley.
"I wanted to talk about a little story about a little dog named Shirley," Cuoco begins in her Sunday (Nov. 24) post on Instagram. "Most of you know I had her for many, many, many years," the actress explains, "and all of the sudden you kind of stopped seeing her. And I started to get a lot of questions at to where she was, 'cause it's very unlike me to just stop posting about a dog that I've had since she was six weeks old."
Cuoco continues, "So, long story short, she's a very special dog to me, as you all know. 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 of years ago. Unfortunately, Blue and Shirley started getting into some mega-fights and Shirley was determined to kill him. And it was very scary."
The decision to re-home Shirley undoubtedly weighs heavily on Cuoco's heart. In her heartfelt tribute, Cuoco emphasized that Shirley would always hold a special place in her heart.
