{"id":829,"date":"2026-09-07T13:56:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/?p=829"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:58:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:58:22","slug":"tucker-budzyns-owner-breaks-down-in-emotional-update-after-his-sudden-death-at-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/?p=829","title":{"rendered":"Tucker Budzyn\u2019s owner breaks down in emotional update after his sudden death at 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tucker Budzyn, the golden retriever who captured millions of hearts online, has died just days after his family shared his cancer diagnosis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Courtney Budzyn, Tucker\u2019s owner, broke the the devastating news\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe woke up, and we rushed him in, and we thought we were going to beat the infection,\u201d Courtney said. \u201cHe was so weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

They tried antibiotics and fluids, but Tucker\u2019s temperature wouldn\u2019t come down and eventually the family had to let him go.<\/p>\n

Tucker was a beloved mega-celebrity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tucker came home in June 2018 as an eight-week-old puppy.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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It got big enough that Courtney and her husband Mike left their jobs, hers cleaning houses, his in civil engineering, to run Tucker\u2019s accounts full time. Fans loved his goofy expressions, his obsession with the pool, and his relationship with his \u201cson,\u201d a dog named Todd.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was part of my soul\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Courtney didn\u2019t hold back about what Tucker meant to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe literally saved my life,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was nothing in this world I wouldn\u2019t have done for him, he was literally part of me. He was part of my soul. It feels like I lost a body part.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also acknowledged how many other people were grieving right alongside her. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, guys. I know he was yours, too,\u201d she said, explaining she\u2019d held off posting because she wasn\u2019t ready to be on camera while still so broken, even as messages kept pouring in asking how Tucker was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how to live, but I have to,\u201d she said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t lie by my side for all those years just for me to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tucker Budzyn, the golden retriever who captured millions of hearts online, has died just days after his family shared his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickrecipes.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}