When adopting a dog, you must accept you'll likely outlive them and have to say your goodbyes one day.
But young children who are yet to learn about death might struggle to understand why their four-legged friend is no longer around.
A toddler has heartrendingly been getting her beloved dog his daily treat from the cupboard - only to be left confused when her pet doesn't appear because he's been put down.
Chloe Simmons and her family were forced to make the difficult decision to have their Staffordshire bull terrier Bruce put down last week as the 11-year-old dog had aggressive cancer.
The 26-year-old had bonded the much-loved mutt with her one-year-old daughter Billie-Ann Faraway since she was just a baby, with the doting animal making her giggle and following her around protectively.
Sign up to our TeamDogs newsletter for your weekly dose of dog news, pictures and stories.
But in a moving clip the little girl can be seen reaching into the kitchen cupboard to grab Bruce a treat, only to turn round to offer it but be left confused when her companion doesn't appear.
The video has since received more than 3.9 million views online - while Chloe has vowed Bruce will never be forgotten.
Chloe, from Grays, Essex, said: "We all cried the first few times Billie-Ann went up to the cupboard.
"She did it the night he passed away which choked the whole family up.
"If she cried as a baby Bruce would run to her side. She has a ball pit that she’d throw balls out of for him.
"He would chase his tail and she would crack up laughing at him.
"She has one of those [remote-controlled] Range Rover cars that she sits in and we drive, so we’d take them out for walks together and Bruce would have to be by her side. If she went ahead, he’d pull on his lead to make sure he was next to her.
"She’d go to his snack cupboard every morning and get him a dental stick to clean his teeth.
"Her snack cupboard is next to his so she’d quite often get herself one and sit on the kitchen floor with him.
"It has been very confusing for her. She would give him his daily dental stick so we’ve had to empty his food cupboard to stop confusing her.
"She kept looking in the cupboard for a few days but we felt it was cruel on her to keep confusing her, so we emptied it and put some other bits in it."
Chloe said she was forced to put Bruce down after he developed cancerous tumours in his lungs and spleen, choosing to have him cremated on the same date as her little boy, who died in 2020.
The stay-at-home mum has told how little Billie-Ann has been searching for her furry best friend for the last week - with the tot confused about why he is no longer home.
Chloe said: "Bruce was our family dog. Billie-Ann has only known the house with him in it.
"His dog bed was in the kitchen and she keeps getting her balls from her ball pit and taking them out to look for him.
"We were looking forward to seeing them play together in the garden this summer now that she is walking.
"He was having problems with his breathing so we took him to the vets and he had lots of cancerous tumours in his lungs and a large one in his spleen.
"It had started to spread throughout his organs so even if any treatment would be possible, it would only be temporary. We were advised the kindest thing to do at his age would be to put him to sleep.
"He was actually cremated on the same day as my son who also died of cancer [in 2020] so it’s been an emotional rollercoaster.
"We think it was a sign we did the right thing by putting him to sleep before he started to suffer.
"Billie will always grow up knowing who Bruce was and how much he loved her. We have his ashes in the living room and getting some photos printed of him for the wall."
