Tucker Budzyn

Tucker Budzyn was an American golden retriever who became one of the most followed animals on the internet. Born on May 3, 2018, in Michigan, he went home as an eight-week-old puppy in June 2018 with Courtney Budzyn, who was then cleaning houses for a living, and her husband Mike, who worked in civil engineering. Courtney opened an Instagram account for him on the day she brought him home.

About a month later Tucker went viral for the first time, in a clip of him pawing at an ice cube. Another early favourite showed him playing with a black plastic hair clip. Those small, goofy moments set the tone for everything that followed: a big, expressive dog, a running voiceover in which Courtney was cast as "Linda", and a family life that millions of strangers came to feel part of.

The audience grew quickly. In 2021 Tucker was named Pet Influencer of the Year at the American Influencer Awards. In August 2021 he was introduced to his son Todd, and in a video that drew wide coverage he "chose" Todd's name by pressing a talking button. Todd became his on-screen sidekick, and the pair appeared together in taste tests, swimming lessons, cabin trips, rollerblading runs and countless backyard wrestling sessions. A 2022 clip of Tucker having his fur curled with a hair styler was widely shared, and in February 2025 a video of the family renting an indoor pool so he could swim in the middle of a Michigan winter went viral again.

By 2023 the account was reported to be earning more than a million dollars a year from brand partnerships, and both Courtney and Mike had left their jobs to run Tucker's channels full time. At the time of his death he had about 27.1 million followers across TikTok (11.8 million), YouTube (5.9 million), Facebook (4.9 million), Instagram (4.4 million) and X (about 70,000).

Tucker's on-screen "wife" was Journee, a fellow golden retriever. Journee died of lymphoma in 2024, and the family marked her death with a tribute video titled "The day I married the love of my life".

On August 30, 2026, Courtney posted a video titled "An Important Update" revealing that Tucker had been diagnosed with lymphoma about two weeks earlier, and asking followers for their prayers. She said he was responding well to chemotherapy and was already in partial remission. Days later, however, the treatment left a hole in his intestine where the cancer had been, and an infection took hold overnight. At the vet his temperature kept rising despite antibiotics and fluids, and the family made the decision to let him go. Tucker died on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at the age of eight.

Courtney announced his death on September 5, 2026, in a tearful video holding a box that appeared to contain his ashes. "I thought that was the last sad video I was gonna make, but it's not," she said. "He was literally part of me. He was part of my soul. It feels like I lost a body part." She said his last three weeks had been the time of his life, filled with park walks, pool jumps, wrestling with Todd, chicken at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and one last rollerblading run. "He literally saved my life," she said. Fans flooded X, Reddit, TikTok and Instagram with tributes.

In October 2026 the family released "Tucker's Final Mission", announcing donations of $8,000 to Morris Animal Foundation's Golden Retriever Lifetime Study and $2,000 to Blood Cancer United's Dare to Dream Project, with fundraising goals of $50,000 and $75,000 in his honour, and a programme to donate copies of his book to children fighting cancer. That picture book, Of All the Sniffs I Love the Most, written before his illness and published by Cedar & Stone Publishing House, is due for release in mid-November 2026.

Tucker is survived by his son Todd and by Courtney and Mike Budzyn.