Rob Brydges still hasn't quite gotten over his dog Bruin's last drive.
Sadly, the popular Moncton, N.B., realtor had to put his eight-year-old Rottweiler down last week and made a video of their final trip to the veterinarian together as a tribute to his four-legged buddy.
Brydges said everyone got along with his extremely friendly pooch, even cats and the neighbourhood mail carrier.
The only thing Bruin didn’t like was the city bus, but Brydges isn’t quite sure why.
“We spent every minute together. Like everywhere, he came with me. Everywhere. Everybody knew him. He was just a loving, loving dog,” said an emotional Brydges on Friday. “He's a movie dog. You could have made a movie about how great he was. Everybody loved him.”
Bruin's last video has gone viral with almost two-and-a-half million views on TikTok and tens of thousands more on other social media sites.
Brydges has received thousands of messages of support and said he's tried to read as many as he could since posting the video on Thursday.
“It was tough, yeah. I normally wouldn't make a video like that. Him and I were in so many videos. I felt like it was our little bond. He knew I was making it, I know he didn't know, but it was tough yeah. Posting it was harder,” he said.
Brydges felt like he had no choice.
Bruin either had a tumour on his spine or a ruptured disc and was too old to go through rehab.
Still, it was a hard decision for the social media content creator.
“They could do surgery for monster amounts of money. Would he ever walk again? Maybe not,” said Brydges. “We could drug him so he's comfortable. He was a stud. He was so athletic. He could jump eight-feet in the air. So are we just going to look at him and feel his warm head? I felt he deserved more. We had to help him use the bathroom.”
Brydges thinks the video is so popular because it brings back a lot of memories for anyone who's lost a pet.
As for getting another dog anytime soon, Brydges says not right now.
“If you ask me again in a year maybe, but.... it's just too much. No,” he said.
Until then, he'll be remembering a special pet, with this special send-off.
