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Neil Patrick Harris is mourning after a tragic family loss: his beloved golden retriever Ella died suddenly after a tragic accident.
The actor shared a moving tribute to his late dog in his newsletter, remembering her as “the single most beautiful golden retriever puppy that has ever existed.”
The How I Met Your Mother star broke the news in his Wondercade newsletter, writing that “something terrible happened.” Harris wrote that while he and his husband David Burtka were visiting friends in New Hampshire, they got a shocking call from their friend Michael, who had been watching their dogs.
He told them that their 4-year-old golden retriever Ella had died unexpectedly in what Harris called “the freakest of accidents.” A tree branch got caught in the dog’s collar, wrapping around her neck and strangling her.
Harris called the death a “massive loss.” “I don’t know how to handle it,” he wrote in the newsletter. Ella was still young and full of life who loved to play ball and jump in the pool.
“She was barely four years old. She was absolutely brimming with life. We’ve had dogs die before, but they were old and blind and incontinent, so for them it was only a matter of time. Sad, yes, but inevitable. But Ella was so young.”
Harris and Burtka brought home Ella as a puppy in December 2020, a Christmas gift for their children Gideon and Harper.
“She has pretty much taken over our lives,” Harris wrote on Instagram at the time. “She’s curious, clumsy, and sublime. Except for when she’s peeing everywhere. Or gnawing on everything. Which is always.”
“It was a morning I’ll never forget — we were almost living in a Norman Rockwell painting. I’ve rarely been happier,” Harris recalled in his newsletter.
Harris wrote that his husband has taken the loss hard; he said that of their four dogs Ella was his favorite. The actor also wrote that he didn’t know how to break the news to his children, who are away at camp and were very close with Ella.
The couple have three other dogs at home: a rescue terrier mix named Gidget, a Chihuahua—French Bulldog mix named Spike, and a French Bulldog named Chunk, according to Celebrity Pets.
This is the second personal loss Neil Patrick Harris this week: the actor James B. Sikking, who was Harris’ on-screen dad in Doogie Howser, M.D., died on July 13 and Harris paid tribute, calling him “one of the kindest, wisest, funniest, and most generous people I’ve ever known.”
“He treated everyone with respect, taught me countless lessons, yet always had a spark of mischief in his eyes. It was an absolute honor to be his son. My condolences to his actual family for their loss.”
