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| Gus Kenworthy and Beemo |
Very sad news from out Olympian Gus Kenworthy who famously saved his new pup, Beemo, from a dog farm in South Korea from being killed.
Beemo apparently became less and less interested in her food this past week and when Gus and boyfriend Matt Wilkas took her to the veterinarian, it was discovered that “her lungs were deteriorated and that her heart was too big for her body – a birth defect we had no way of knowing about.”
According to the silver medalist, vets said there was no way to know about the condition and she had been living on “borrowed time.”
See Gus and Matt’s heartbreaking notes below.
This is an incredibly sad post, I’m sorry… On Thursday @beemopup passed away. She had gotten sick about a week prior, stopped eating… the vets thought it was worms or possibly fussiness. When she wasn’t getting better we brought her to the vet again and they took x-rays that revealed her heart was too big. She was born with a heart defect we weren’t aware of. It was effecting all of her functions. We rushed her to the emergency room in an attempt to save her but there was nothing that could be done. The ER vets brought us down to be with her as she died. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced anything so heartbreaking. We pet her, we kissed her, we said our goodbyes and watched her take her last breaths. Many people who have never owned a dog might think to themselves “it’s just a dog”. But she wasn’t just a dog. She was our friend, she was our family, she was there in the morning when we woke up, she was so happy to see us every time we came home, and she loved us unconditionally. From the moment we met her on a dog meat farm in South Korea we knew how special she was. She made a hundred people smile every day. Every walk we took her on was interrupted again and again by people wanting to meet her, pet her, kiss her. (If you are reading this and you met her, then you know what i mean). She loved people. She loved playing with other dogs. She loved birds. Even on her last walks, when she was at her most tired and weakest, she really just wanted to be a puppy and play. She changed peoples lives. She changed my life. She changed Gus’s life. And she brought attention to an important cause (PLEASE RESCUE A DOG! PLEASE DONATE TO @hsiglobal THEY ARE, IN ADDITION TO DOING SO MANY OTHER THINGS, SHUTTING DOWN THE MEAT FARM INDUSTRY IN SOUTH KOREA!) I feel so grateful and lucky to have known her even for a brief moment. And I don’t regret giving her a happy love-filled life only to be so heartbroken now. It was worth it. Goodbye Bee. 🐝A post shared by Matthew Wilkas (@mwilkas) on May 26, 2018 at 6:36pm PDT
Beemo had become something of a social media phenom herself as Gus opened an Instagram account “for her” and she quickly gained over 100K followers.
Gus posted the pic below with the quote, “The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long. RIP Beemo – you were and always will be very loved!”