Kaley Cuoco Explains Why She Had to Rehome Her Dog Shirley

Longtime fans of Kaley Cuoco and her social media presence probably remember her dog Shirley, who stopped appearing on her Instagram feed a few years ago. On November 24, Cuoco finally explained that she’d had to rehome her beloved dog, who recently died of cancer, because she was getting into fights with other family pets.

“Most of you know I had [Shirley] for many, many, many years, and all of a sudden, you kind of stopped seeing her,” Cuoco said in a video, posted to IG. “And I started to get a lot of questions as to where she was, because it’s very unlike me to just stop posting about a dog that I’ve had since she was 6 weeks old.”

Cuoco explained that Shirley was a very special dog to her, but when, “the love of my life” Tom Pelphrey—Cuoco’s fiancé with whom she shares baby daughter Matilda—came into her life a couple years ago, he moved across the country with his own beloved German shepherd named Blue. “Unfortunately, Blue and Shirley started getting into some mega fights,” Cuoco said. “And Shirley was determined to kill him,” she added with a laugh. “Shirley had gotten into other dog fights before and it really scared me,” Cuoco continued, even though Shirley always loved people, kids, and families. “I mean, I cherished that dog.”

The Flight Attendant actor said she was very worried that Shirley was going to hurt another animal or possibly even a person who got in the middle, and so made the difficult decision that Shirley couldn’t continue living with the family, even though she loved her so much.

The internet tends to have a strong reaction whenever anyone rehomes a dog (Rachel Leviss and the Graham affair comes to mind), but Kaley Cuoco said in her video that she felt it was important to be honest about what happened, because she’s sure that other families have had to make this difficult decision also.