Keely Gaffney and her fiancé, Nash Morgan, adored their golden retriever puppy, Dunkin.

Anna Gia Images

Keely Gaffney vividly remembers the joy she felt when she and her fiancé brought home a golden retriever puppy named Dunkin about a year and a half ago.

“We instantly fell in love with him, and I started making little videos of him just for fun,” she said. “He was just an absolute angel.”

The Arizona-based content creator had just graduated from college and started working remotely for her first job, but the sassy, adventurous dog reminded her to get outside and go for a walk or a hike or simply take a break for a smile or a laugh.

He also brought her closer to her fiancé, Nash Morgan — and touched the lives of strangers on the internet. Dunkin’s Instagram following quickly grew to over 250,000 followers, with people frequently thanking Gaffney for the lighthearted videos of her charming pup with messages like, “This is the first laugh I’ve had in a while. Thank you so much for this vlog.”

“I could see the impact he was making on other people’s lives just from these silly little videos,” she said. “He was just seriously the best first dog I could ever have had.”

Dunkin’s Tragic Death

But tragedy struck this March when Dunkin just seemed off. His body language and behavior changed; he acted standoffish and simply not himself. A veterinarian examined him and urged the couple to rush their dog to an emergency animal hospital, which they did.

“We went into that ER thinking it was going to be expensive, but we were going to take him home and everything was going to be OK,” she said.

Sadly, fate had other plans. Dunkin’s white blood cell count was “through the roof,” and he was suffering from internal bleeding, likely from some type of cancer.

The only option was to say goodbye.

“We pictured him living for 12 to 14 years with us, and how he was going to be our first child’s dog growing up and everything,” Gaffney said. “So losing him so short was very unexpected but kind of just shocking. I can’t put into words how much it broke us, but I think in a way it truly did teach us not to take life for granted because you never know when something can change.”

Dunkin’s Lasting Legacy

The outpouring of support from the online community in the wake of Dunkin’s death helped the couple begin to heal. It also motivated Gaffney to find ways to create a lasting legacy for her dog’s short but special life.

About two weeks after Dunkin died, she rallied followers and brands to make donations to shelter dogs in his honor — and received a touching response.

“We had two SUVs filled with toys and food and everything and made the donation to a couple different shelters around us,” she said. “We wanted to help spread the love and the kindness that he brought into not only our lives, but our followers’ lives as well.”

One of the shelters, HALO Animal Rescue in Phoenix, made such an impression on Gaffney that she wanted to do more to help. So she launched Dunkin’s Doggy Day Out to give shelter dogs at HALO a day of fun and pampering.

“Obviously losing Dunkin was heartbreaking, but at the same time it inspired me to turn that pain into something more hopeful, which was to give other dogs at our local shelter the same kind of love and joy and adventure that he brought into our lives every single day,” she said. “And that’s exactly what we did. In the series, we take out shelter dogs for a full day of freedom and just spend the day spoiling them with hikes, parks, pup cups, new toys, everything the dog loves. Then we end that whole day with a full spa makeover.”

The owners of FurBabies Resort and Spa loved the idea and offered free grooming services for the spa makeovers, and companies like PetSafe and Dog is Human stepped up to sponsor Dunkin’s Doggy Day Out events.

“The main point of it too was just to spread awareness because with our socials, we have a 1.2 million follower reach across all of our channels,” she said. “The point was to show people watching that they can do that, too. They have the same opportunity because of lot of shelters actually allow you to take one of their dogs out for the day.”

Sure enough, many fans of Dunkin’s Doggy Day Out reached out to their local shelters to see if they could “day foster” a dog.

“Since we started this series last spring, we’ve received so many messages from people who’ve tried it themselves saying it was the best day ever,” she said. “A lot actually ended up adopting the dogs they took out, they just fell in love with them. And seeing people all over the country doing their own version of Dunkin’s Doggy Day Out has genuinely been so inspiring and that’s what’s kept us going.”

Welcoming Home Brew And Launching Dunkin’s Angels

Dunkin’s Doggy Day Out helped Gaffney and Morgan through the grieving process, as well as welcoming home a 5-month-old golden retriever named Brew in June.

Brew is a “cuddle bug” with a tennis ball obsession. He’s more reserved than Dunkin was, but, like his predecessor, is a “sweetheart,” according to Gaffney.

“Taking Brew in reminded us how precious life can be,” she said.

Brew is bringing joy to his own social media followers while Gaffney is preparing to launch another project to honor her late dog: Dunkin’s Angels.

“Its mission is to help dog parents facing the heartbreaking decision of euthanasia by covering the unexpected bills that come with it,” she said. “No one should have to decide how to say goodbye to their best friend while worrying about money.”

Though Dunkin’s Angels is still in early stages as Gaffney pursues nonprofit status, she has already used her social media reach (including @keely1123 on TikTok and @brewthegolden on Instagram) to highlight crowdfunding sites of people who need help with veterinary bills in these situations.

“The love and the support that we got from Dunkin’s followers as well as mine helped so much in the grieving process,” she said. “Hearing their stories or what other people were going through or how they healed and all these things, I wanted to be able to make an impact to help other people that are going through something similar.”

Ultimately, she hopes to continue to help other people and pets while honoring Dunkin’s memory.

“Dunkin just brought so much light into our life in such a short time,” she said. “Although it was such a short time, I would do it all over again, even if it meant going through that grief and that loss, because loving him was so much better than not having him at all.”