Heartfelt Video Captures Dad’s Final Moments with Beloved Dog Before Their Last Goodbye (Exclusive)

Katie Ekin’s family always had dogs running around the house. At one point, they had four rescues all under the same roof — of which Chandler, a terrier rescue mutt they adopted at 6 months old, was the smallest.

Even though he was small, Chandler was a bit of a boss. Despite that, Katie, 33, tells PEOPLE he was incredibly loving and would melt in your arms. So it came as no surprise to her that, over the years, Chandler and her dad, Gary, 70, developed a special bond.

“My favorite memory is how Chandler showed up for my dogs constantly,” Katie says. “When they were younger, they’d play so much, and when my dog Mowgli was sick, Chandler wouldn’t leave his side. I’d always find them curled up together. He was such a source of comfort.”

Recently, the family, who lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., noticed that 17-year-old Chandler had become incontinent and needed to wear a diaper full-time. Their vets suspected he had a brain tumor, as he would often walk in circles to the left. He also began sleeping more and eating less.

After some discussion, and with guidance from their vet, the family eventually made the difficult decision to put Chandler down. In the days leading up to their final goodbye, Katie noticed her father cherishing every last moment with Chandler. Multiple times throughout the week, she found him lying on the floor, curled up in a ball next to their beloved dog.

“With his recent health changes, Chandler had been getting pretty restless,” Katie says. “We couldn’t leave him on the bed because we were scared he would fall off, so we kept him cozy on his floor bed. Typically, if he sensed us coming in to pet him, he’d get up and start wandering.”

“But when my dad would go in and lay with him, he stayed asleep and seemed so peaceful — like he was soaking up the moments the same as my dad,” she adds.

Having lost her own rescue a year earlier, Katie had documented every moment of that experience as a way to process her grief. She decided to do the same for her dad.

Although the video started as something personal to help her dad process the loss, Katie decided — without thinking much of it — to post it on TikTok. She didn’t expect it to reach many people. But when the video went viral, amassing more than 7 million views and nearly 6,000 comments, she was speechless.

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“You’re in such a haze when you’re pre-grieving, and I wanted my dad to be able to have what I did — to look back at those special moments with Chandler at a time when I knew he would need it most.”

“Every single comment was supportive, and that was so meaningful to us,” the singer-songwriter adds. “So many people left the kindest words or shared their own stories of pet loss and pet grief. It reached and touched so many more people than we ever could’ve imagined.”

“My favorite comment was someone who said, ‘Someone once told me time moves differently in heaven. That by the time your pet turns around, you’ll be right there with them,’ ” she adds. “It brought tears to our eyes instantly.”

On the morning of May 6, the family gathered together one last time with Chandler. Looking back on that moment, Katie says it felt like Chandler wanted them to know he was ready.

“He had been a little restless the last week, but on his final morning, he wandered into my room. I pulled him on the bed, and he curled up close and fell asleep. My parents came in, and we all sat with him for hours before we took him on one last walk.”

“We have an incredible community of family and friends, many of whom came by the week before to visit with Chandler and say their goodbyes,” she adds. “It was so special to see the way he touched so many of our loved ones’ lives over the years — and that was just Chandler, he made you fall in love with him.”

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