Brokenhearted Bulldog Pup Passes Away 15 Minutes After Owner Loses Brain Cancer Battle

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Many times, as has been seen, bonds of friendship or love between two people are so strong that at the time of death, one follows the other hours or even minutes later into the afterlife. In the case of one young man in Scotland, it was his adoring puppy dog that followed—just minutes after the owner passed.

Twenty-five-year-old Stuart Hutchison spent eight years battling cancer after first getting diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2011.

Over the near-decade that he spent undergoing chemotherapy, surgeries, and hospital visits, there was perhaps no one that grew closer to him than his 2-year-old french bulldog, Nero. Even though he and his new wife, Danielle, owned three dogs, Hutchison and Nero were almost always together.

Nero had seemed perfectly healthy until the day that Hutchison passed.

Danielle had been staying with her husband at his mother’s home, where he had been for the last few weeks after doctors had revealed that he didn’t have long left. Her father had gone back to their home in Alloa, Scotland, that morning after Danielle realized that she had broken her glasses, hoping to retrieve her spare pair—and instead discovered that their pup was unwell.

A trip to the emergency vet revealed that Nero had ruptured something in his spine, falling ill at the same time that his owner was living out his final hours. The pair died just 15 minutes apart, leaving Danielle heartbroken but ending a painful and difficult battle for Hutchison after years and years.

Hutchison was first diagnosed with brain cancer in 2011, and had been initially optimistic about the outlook of his most recent treatment in 2018 when the doctors discovered that the cancer had become more aggressive than ever.

“He went into hospital to start chemo at the end of 2018 and he was then having scans every three months,” explained his mother. “He went for a check-up and they were convinced there was nothing wrong. But then by June it started to affect his whole arm and that’s when they did a scan and saw the cancer had taken over his whole brain and had spread to his bones and his pelvis.”

Hutchison, who married Danielle in January of 2019, ultimately ended up staying at his mother’s place during his final weeks so he could peacefully pass in his childhood home. But even though he was staying with his mother, he spent more time with Nero than anyone—even his other two dogs, Nala and Amelia.

“Danielle was heartbroken to have lost both of them, but she has been so strong,” the heartbroken mother told SWNS. “We got Stuart home four weeks ago because he wanted to die at home because that’s where he was born. We cared for him at home. We expected it, but it is still tough.”