By Daniella Gray
Copyright newsweek
A boy from the north of England has broken hearts for what he did just days after his family lost their beloved dog.
Parents Carley, 40, and Ciara Jones, 34, and their 3-year-old son, Tiger, said goodbye to Popcorn on September 21. Three days later, Tiger was overcome with grief. In a clip on TikTok posted by Carley and Ciara (@bossmammies), Tiger shares how sad he was that Popcorn, their 14-year-old Chihuahua, had died.
When Ciara asks if he wants to talk to her, the toddler looks up at the sky and begins speaking as if to heaven: “Pops, I really miss you; please when you’re better, please come back down. I’m going to start crying in a minute.”
Carley told Newsweek that Popcorn had been there for the family’s highs and lows. “She was the most-placid little dog,” she said. “She only wanted cuddles and human contact. She’s been me through every version—my party days through to my wife and mother days, watching me get married and bring home our beautiful son.”
An emotional and upset Tiger looks up in pajamas at the night sky.
“Popcorn and Tiger had a love-hate relationship,” Carley continued. “One minute he wanted to hug her, the next he was chasing her around the house. Now she’s gone, she’s left such an empty space in our hearts.”
Popcorn had been battling congestive heart failure, a common disease in Chihuahuas. Medication had prolonged her life for nearly a year, but her health rapidly declined.
“The kindest thing to do was to take her into the vets and put her down on our terms,” Carley said. “Once she was given the injection, she went within a second. It’s the hardest thing I think I’ve ever done.”
Ciara and Carley prepared Tiger gently for the loss, explaining that Popcorn was sick and often at the vet.
The couple told him she had “gone over the rainbow bridge to heaven” and was now “the brightest star in the sky.” They also gave him a children’s book about pet loss—Over the Rainbow Bridge by Noel Fitzpatrick—which helped him understand.
Even so, hearing him speak directly to Popcorn after her passing was gut-wrenching. “[It was] devastating to see your child experience their first moment of grief and loss,” Carley said. “There’s so much more that we obviously didn’t record, but on one of them, he apologized for chasing her around the house and annoying her and promised he wouldn’t do it again if she came back to him. It was the most heartbreaking thing.”
The TikTok video, filmed by Ciara to share with Carley while she was away, has since amassed more than 1.7 million views and over 194,000 likes.
Thousands of users left sympathy and advice in the comments.
“The POPS STARTED ME. Bless his little heart, he’s broken,” one user said.
“Omg [oh my God] my heart,” wrote another.
Some even shared their own stories of pet loss with a picture of their dogs.
“Maddie is taking good care of Pops and can guarantee they’re having cuddles watching down on us,” a third user wrote.
“Hey buddy, Popcorn has got my little man Trev up there to play with,” another commenter added.
Carley and Ciara didn’t expect their clip to go viral.
“[We’ve had] thousands of lovely comments, people sharing their stories of pet loss [and] people giving us lovely advice on how to navigate through this with our son,” Carley said.
Some users questioned why the parents would film this moment. “My answer is, why not? My wife filmed the moment to send to me,” Carley said. “It’s so sad, but it’s also a precious moment of our son showing his beautiful, emotional and caring side. He is such an empathetic little boy, and I am so proud of him showing and learning his emotions in this way.”
