A woman mourning the sudden death of her dog has discovered heartbreaking footage of her French Bulldog filmed the day before he died.
The loss of a dog is a devastating experience and, in some cases, quite literally heartbreaking. In 2017, The New England Journal of Medicine presented the case study of a Texas woman admitted to hospital with the symptoms of a heart attack.
Further tests, however, showed no indication of any issues with her arteries. When doctors asked the patient, Joanie Simpson, about her background, they learned her beloved 9-year-old dog had recently died.
Simpson was ultimately diagnosed with takotsubo cardiomyopathy, sometimes colloquially known as "broken-heart syndrome" a medical disorder brought about by issues in the left ventricular of the heart and often caused by bouts of extreme stress. In this case, doctors believed the death of Simpson's dog had brought about the episode.
Alice Hulme from Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire in the U.K. might not have gone through what Simpson has physiologically but there's no doubting she's brokenhearted following the death of her French Bulldog, Paddington. "He passed away one week before his 4th birthday," Hulme told Newsweek.
Paddington had suffered from a variety of medical conditions over the years. At age 2, he had been diagnosed with Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome, a breathing condition that affects dogs with flat faces.
He was also diagnosed with Intervertebral Disc Disease (IVDD) a painful spinal condition that can affect dogs and is caused when a disc in the spine is displaced or ruptured. This puts pressure on the nerves and causes pain.
Despite this, by the start of 2025, Paddington had successfully undergone surgery to treat both issues and Hulme hoped his health problems were largely behind him. Then on the morning of Saturday, January 18, Paddington collapsed at home.
"His breathing was slow, so we rushed him to the vets," Hulme said. "They did a scan and told us he had heart failure, an enlarged heart and multiple clots. They said he wouldn't get any better."
Hulme recalls how this happened in the space of 20 dizzying minutes. They had little choice but to put Paddington to sleep. "We said our goodbyes and we let him go," she said. "We have another French bulldog, Chester, who we took into the vets to see Paddington after he had been put to sleep, so he understood he's not coming home. It was heartbreaking."
Hulme was in shock at losing the dog they had worked so hard to bring into their lives and loved so much. "My husband and I wanted a puppy and we found him online and fell in love. We saved up every penny to get him," Hulme said. "Paddington loved sitting in front of the fire, he loved drinking the last drop of our tea in our mugs and he absolutely adored cuddles."
Hulme and her partner turned to the pet cam in hope of finding answers. "My husband and I were going through the doggy cam to see if we could see anything we missed the previous day before he collapsed," she said.
What they found instead brought Hulme to tears. "It was me holding Paddington like a baby and him kissing me," she said. "His back legs would stay somewhat straight due to his IVDD surgery, so they would often wrap around my waist as I held him."
The heartbreaking clip had been captured 16 hours before Paddington passed. Hulme said that she was "very emotional" the first time she watched it, but since rewatching the clip and sharing it on TikTok under the handle alicehulme, her feelings have changed. "I'm so happy that the camera picked up such a special moment," she said.
For now, Hulme is trying to focus on the happy memories she had of Paddington." My fondest memories are taking him to Lands End and how much fun we had, how he managed to light up a room with this crazy personality, how vocal he was and how he would head tilt every time we said 'naughty' to him," she said.
She hopes her story encourages others to love their dogs with their
"whole heart." Hulme said: "I like to think of the quote 'To us, dogs are some of our best chapters in life. To them, we are the whole book.'"
English (US) ·