Halsey, a 27-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer, didn’t understand the anguish of losing a dog until she went through it herself. “Before I had my own dog, I would hear others mourn their dogs and say, ‘It’s just a dog…’ unfortunately, I couldn’t have been more wrong,” she said in a heartbreakingly frank Instagram post.
When Jagger, a Pit Bull mix, was barely a few weeks old, Halsey adopted him. She fell in love with the cuddly dog right away, and while she mentally prepared herself to lose him one day, she assumed he’d be “old, creaky, and cranky” when that time arrived. She never expected that a rare, abrupt, and terrible spinal illness would take Jagger’s life in his prime.
Jagger, who was five years old at the time, died of myelomalacia, a rare condition that happens after a serious spinal cord injury. A herniated disc causes decreased blood flow, paralysis, and eventual spinal cord necrosis in the dog (tissue death). There is no known therapy for this disease, and it is nearly usually deadly.
Jagger died of myelomalacia, a rare illness that occurs after a catastrophic spinal cord injury, when he was five years old. In dogs, a herniated disc results in reduced blood supply, paralysis, and eventual spinal cord necrosis (tissue death). This condition has no known treatment, and it is almost always lethal.
The unexpected and tragic nature of Jagger’s death made the singer’s “Without Me” and “Bad At Love” even more emotional.
“I knew it would hurt, and I was terrified of it, but I was happy with the knowledge that we’d have many more years together, and he’d have a long and happy life.”
“I don’t know why I’m sharing all this besides to just say love your pets every single second because anything can change in a moment.”
Halsey advises anyone who feel losing a pet isn’t a horrible event to rethink their position.
Jagger is Halsey’s “very first love,” and she thanks him with teaching her “how to be a mum.” In July of 2021, she and screenwriter Alev Aydin had their first child, Ender Ridley Aydin.
