Kelsea Ballerini is mourning the loss of her beloved dog of more than 10 years, Dibs, who passed away on Wednesday (Jan. 7) following a battle with heart cancer. The 32-year-old country superstar took to social media on Thursday evening (Jan. 8) to share that her 10-year-old goldendoodle had died.
“My sweet dibs went to doggy heaven yesterday. He spent his last few days in his backyard looking at the sunshine and surrounded and visited by his forever people,” Ballerini began. She went on to share how much Dibs has meant to her, even calling him her “soul dog.” She continued, “There are no words to articulate his role in my life, but I couldn’t have done the last ten years without him, and he will always be my soul dog…and I pray and believe we’ll find each other in every life.”
The post featured a carousel of memories, including Kelsea Ballerini cuddling with Dibs, photos of Ballerini and her boyfriend Chase Stokes lying with the dog in what appeared to be his final moments, throwbacks of Ballerini holding Dibs as a puppy, plus clips of him playing with toys, running in the backyard, attending her concerts, sitting in on tour rehearsals, swimming with Ballerini and Stokes, appearing on the set of The Voice during her time as a coach, and tagging along for car and plane rides.
“His love and reach can’t be captured in an Instagram photo dump, or in a caption, but here’s a look at some happy from dibs,” Ballerini added before concluding the emotional post with, “Thank you for loving him so loudly with me. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I got to be his dog mom, greatest gift of my life.”
Dibs was diagnosed with inoperable heart cancer in August of 2024. On August 28, 2025, ahead of the release of her latest album, PATTERNS, Kelsea Ballerini revealed the sad news via her Instagram stories, writing, “the last few days we have discovered that dibby has inoperable cancer in his heart.”
At the time, she let her followers know that he wasn’t in pain and that the cancer hasn’t spread, so Dibs’ doctors were planning his next steps, which were meds, chemo therapy and surgery. “We’re going to start him on the ‘big’ meds to try to make sure he can have as many comfortable and happy days (weeks, months) left as possible,” Ballerini added. “It’s a complex and emotional time. He’s been my baby and my steady for the last 9 years and very much alongside this whole journey with us all. I know so many of you care about him and are sending him prayers and love, and from my whole heart… thank you. He’s wagging his tail right now, no doubt saying thank you too.”
In September of 2025, Dibs had to undergo a “surprise surgery.” Since then, Kelsea Ballerini has kept fans updates on Dibs health and cancer journey through her Instagram stories and posts, with her last post being on Christmas 2025, when she shared a photo of Dibs licking her, captioned, “a very merry dibsmas & Christmas indeed.”
Ballerini adopted Dibs early on in her career when she got her first tour bus and named him after one of her biggest hits at that time, “Dibs,” written by Ballerini alongside Josh Kerr, Ryan Griffin, and Jason Duke that appears on her debut album, The First Time.
“I’ve grown up with dogs my whole life. When I started touring, it was my first time really being on my own. I was homesick sometimes, and I was like I really want a dog. Dibs came into my life when I got my first tour. I think dogs kind of make home wherever you are. So for me, he’s always made it feel like home,” Ballerini previously told CMT.
She first introduced Dibs to fans in 2015 with a social media post that was captioned, “My heart has officially melted in to a puddle. Meet my new pup. Dibs!”
