Newlyweds Maria Menounos and Keven Undergaro are mourning the loss of their beloved Bichon, Baby.
The 39-year-old TV personality took to Instagram on Tuesday, February 6, to share a heartfelt post remembering her canine companion of 18 years.
“She was my first dog & a dream come true as I dreamed of having her my whole life. I would borrow friends dogs & Take them on walks growing up. I came home from working at the Super Bowl to find that @undergaro had to give her safe passage w/out me,” she wrote alongside a series of photos of the pup. “She fought until the last moment. This dog inspired me so much with her spirit & her fight.”
The One Tree Hill alum continued to detail Baby’s medical history and revealed that the pup had a “miraculous turnaround” right before her 16th birthday.
She added: “She got us through the best & worst of times. There are no words to explain the ❤. There’s a hole in my heart however I really want to shift the tears to celebrating her amazing life & the blessing of almost 18 years with my little angel. I know it’s hard for some to understand bc maybe they haven’t experienced the unconditional love from a dog, but it’s deep & special.”
“Baby I will never forget you my little angel, thank you for the laughs, the kisses (yours were always my favorite) and for fighting to stick around long enough for me to heal from surgery & Marry Your daddy. 😘❤,” she concluded, referring to her June 2017 surgery to remove a golf-ball-size meningioma brain tumor and her surprise New Year’s Eve wedding to Undergaro.
Menounos, who’s never been shy to show her love for her pets on social media, opened up to Us Weekly about her senior dog’s failing health earlier this month when asked about honeymoon plans.
“Our babies are very old right now. We have two Bichons that are both turning 18 this year. We in our last phase with them so we can’t travel together until we give them safe passage,” she told Us at the time. “No one can babysit them in the state they are in. They need one of us and so we’re deciding based on what happens with them when we’ll go on our honeymoon. Hopefully maybe this summer or something.”
Meanwhile, the AfterBuzz founder also shared an emotional post with two photos of himself with his furry friend.
He recalled the “hard courtship” he and his now-wife endured early on in their relationship and wrote: “When we got to LA we had no money or family but then we met you. You loved us both but you knew I especially needed you. I was shattered at that time -so bad that my heart literally ached with each breath. When it did ache,you instinctively curled up on my chest. No matter who called you or what treats were offered you REFUSED to leave that aching chest.”
He continued to compare the dog’s strength and spirit to Maria’s. “I know you didn’t want to go – fighter you were to the end. Like I said , you’re just like your mom.”
Undergaro ended the post with a call out to people everywhere. “If you’re in a rut yourself, don’t derive yourself, get a furry companion – you will never be sorry.”
Following her life-altering surgery, Us Weekly caught up with Maria in August where she reflected on her current state of mind. “What this has done is shift my focus into more of like a mind, body, spiritual kind of grounding that needs to happen,” she told Us. “I think this has convinced me to give myself more time, mentally, to breathe.”
As previously reported, the couple, who dated for more than a decade before getting engaged, tied the knot on live TV during FOX’s New Year’s broadcast.