It is with absolute broken hearts that we share our best friend Nacho has died.
The MRI revealed a large inoperable tumor in his brain & Nacho had declined too far to explore radiation. His days were numbered & we knew we had to get him home.
Late on Thursday, we drove through the night from Vancouver to Kelownaโฆ just the three of us, like how our little family story had started 11 years ago.
We were trying to get Nacho home to say goodbye to the kids & Peaches. Live out his last days in his favourite place.
Nacho passed away with his head on Jill’s lap & Justinโs hand on his back, an hour away from home at 4am. It was one of the scariest & heartbreaking but beautiful moments. He let out his last big sigh (something he did often and we loved) & said goodbye.
Our hearts will never be the same and the last few days have been crushing.
Nacho was much more than just a dog.
He was a pup from Mexico with all the odds against him, a runt of the litter saved by Justinโs brother and delivered to us in July 2014. We had no idea what that gift delivered was going to bring us.
From the streets of Mexico to Canada, to billboards in New York, to being featured on The Ellen Show, magazine covers, local TV shows, his own Instagram account, he amassed hundreds of millions of friends, we didnโt just love Nacho, the world loved Nacho. He even went viral again just this final week of his life.
For the last 11 years, he has been through those beautiful formative milestones of our family. Starting a family, helping raise our babies with love and play, adopting Peachesโฆour new life at the farmโฆ He was woven into the fabric of who we are as a family. Nacho brought us so much joy, love & happiness and we are so overwhelmed with the thought of not seeing him again.
He slept in our beds, he sat beside us while we worked all day. He travelled with us. He sat right by our feet in the kitchen. Despite tripping over him over and over, we knew there would come a day that we would miss it & that day has come.
He had a heart as big as the world, his love was so strong. Everyone who met Nacho could feel it.
His paws smelled like nachos.
He was our best friend. ๐
xo
Jilly
I know what this pain is. I cried everyday for the first year after losing my girl. I had to remind myself what a great life we had given her. Nacho lived an amazing life and knew how much he was loved.
Thank you for sharing Nacho with the world. He was a good boy who lived a delightful life, who got to spend his days being loved by amazing people with great big hearts.
Jillian, Justin, Leo, Annie, Peaches and your entire family. Sincere condolences on the passing of your beloved boy, Nacho. I feel like I got to know him with each picture I viewed. RIP Nacho, you will be forever loved and missed not only by your family but by myself and many others as well.
Something I came across the other day that made me stop in my tracks and re- read to let it really sink in๐
Grief is the echo of love, a response to the absence of what once was or how we had hoped it would be. Grief is what happens when our hearts refuse to become numb to what matters. “Grief is just love with no place to go.” -Jamie Anderson