“My cancer diagnosis was a while ago, but I chose to keep it private until after finding out my surgery was successful.”
Kristin Cavallari shared a heartfelt update on the January 13 episode of her Let’s Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari podcast, revealing that she had to put her German Shepherd, Kona, down the day before recording the first episode of the new year.
“God, it is so hard, the physical act of putting a dog down,” Cavallari admitted, reflecting on the experience. She noted it was the second time she had faced this heartbreak, after the loss of her Yorkie. “Even if you have made peace with it,” she added, “it’s still incredibly difficult.”
Kona was nearly 12 years old, which Cavallari described as a “great” age for a German Shepherd. The dog had begun showing signs of aging, losing some eyesight and hearing, though she remained active and enjoyed walks with the family until the final months.
“She lived a great life. Kona was, up until the last few months, going on walks with us still,” Cavallari said. “And then, in the last five, six months, she really started to take a downhill turn.”
Before the difficult farewell, Cavallari spent a week saying goodbye to Kona, treating her to favorites like chocolate, peanut butter, and steak. She described the moment of putting her dog down as “intense.”
“I was laying there with her, petting her. I’m gonna try really hard not to cry,” she said.
Cavallari originally adopted Kona in 2017, during her then-husband Jay Cutler’s time playing for the Miami Dolphins. The dog was meant to provide protection for their three children at their Tennessee home.
“Kona was immediately so sweet and loving with both Jaxon and me,” Cavallari recalled. “I immediately was like, ‘This is my dog, man. This is my girl.’ She was always my dog. Kona would follow me everywhere and always had eyes on me.”
Cavallari also shared that the first night Kona was in their home, she slept on a back staircase that had been making Cavallari nervous because it had access to her kids’ rooms but was on the opposite side of the house from her room.
“That was such an incredible moment when I realized she was on the staircase. Because I just felt so safe,” Cavallari sais. “Finally, after months of not sleeping and being so worried about all of my babies upstairs, Kona just knew to sleep on that staircase to keep them safe. And it was the best feeling in the entire world. And so that was Kona in a nutshell, just the most badass, amazing dog on the planet.”
The loss deeply affected her children, especially her eldest son, Camden, 13.
Cavallari shared that Camden texted her in distress: “‘I can't be here. Can you please come get me?’” She picked him up from school, where he “started bawling, crying… seeing Camden so sad. Oh my God, it just wrecked me. This is like the first big death for them.”
Cavallari, who also has two younger dogs aged 3 and 2, said she plans to always have a German Shepherd in her life but isn’t ready to bring another into the family just yet.
“We are cremating Kona, and I’m waiting to get her ashes. Then we’re going to spread them in our yard,” she explained. “I’m not ready to pull the trigger on another one just yet.”
