Zach and Tori Roloff faced an unexpected tragedy on last night’s episode of Little People, Big World.
Thankfully, it did not have anything to do with their baby son.
But the couple learned on the latest installment of this TLC hit their their beloved dog, Sully, had been diagnosed with cancer.
Just a few days later, the illness has quickly spread to the canine’s major organs and the three-year old was dead, with Zach and Tori burying him on the family farm alongside three other pets who had passed away over the years.
The episode was filmed in March, during Tori’s third trimester, about two months before she gave birth to her first child.
“We were supposed to make a family together,” Zach said of how he envisioned himself, his wife, their dog and their son, prior to this awful development.
He added in a confessional:
“Sully was supposed to take care of the baby and be his friend. Just tons of dreams and visions were crushed.”
“It was the hardest goodbye I’ve ever had to make,” Tori wrote on Instagram at the time, adding that Sully was “the best big brother baby Roloff could ever ask for.”
Heartbroken over the sudden loss of her four-legged pal, Tori opened up multiple times in late March.
She shared three different Instagram posts about Sully, writing on March 23 as a caption to the adorable photo below.
There are still some moments where the pain is unbearable. Where I swear I’m going to walk through the door and you’ll be there wagging your tail with your favorite stuffy in your mouth.
Losing sully has been incredibly hard on both zach and I and I think we’re both just waiting for the loneliness to subside.
We know our house won’t be quite for long and we are in for the ride of our lives with baby roloff on the way but it’s hard to not think about the best of friends the two of them would have been.
We’ll never have another friend like #inspectorsullivan but we do look forward to the day we’re able to give another Berner a forever home.
I celebrate you Sully on #nationalpuppyday because you will forever have a place in my heart. Love you goobies.
This photo and those words received nearly 900 Comments and 34,500 Likes.
Fans of this family clearly felt Tori’s pain and sympathized with her at the time.
Of course, she and Zach were also preparing for a baby (born on May 12 and named Jackson Kyle) back when this episode was filmed.
After Tori went in for an ultrasound, Zach told his mother that it looked like the impending infant would, indeed, be a little person.
“The skull is measuring above average and all the limbs are measuring below average,” he said.
The Roloffs are yet to confirm whether little Jackson is a dwarf, but Zach said on the episode that all “measurements were indicating” this would be the case, while doctors dubbed the possibility as “likely.”
Despite being a little person himself, Roloff had previously admitted that he was concerned his son would through the same bullying and potential health issues that he has suffered.
“I didn’t think it would affect me until the doctor said it to me,” Zach told his mother, Amy, who responded as best she could in an attempt to alleviate her child’s worries.
“Even if it is a dwarf, you don’t know that they’re going to have all your problems as well,” she said, to which Zach replied:
“Totally, physical problems. I’m talking about the emotional problems right now, though.”
Things then turned emotional when Zach recounted all the times he would come home “crying” because he couldn’t “keep up” with his friends.
In the end, though, Zach laughed that he turned out “alright” as a little person, while Tori took the long view of their situation.
“He’s healthy, he has a great heartbeat – he’s cute as a button, and that’s all that matters,” she said of her son, adding:
“His quality of life is not going to change, and the amount of love he receives is not going to change.”
Amen. Well said, Tori.
To find out what else transpired last night, click on the above video to watch Little People, Big World online.
Then, join us in sending your condolences to the Roloffs on the loss of Sully.