Story of dying dog with 'bucket list' touched the world

Scott Thompson

Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

Cooper, a 13-year-old dog who died in October from cancer, is sorely missed by his owner, Brittney Lampert. “It’s been lonely,” she said. “I some times call his name or think I hear him, but it’s just the cats. It’s been quiet and lonely.”

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Life at the Lampert house hasn’t been the same since October.

It used to be filled with the hubbub of a dog that owner Brittney Lampert described as perfect.

But Cooper died on Oct. 20 after gaining a small measure of fame when Lampert talked to the Tribune about her quest to fulfill Cooper’s bucket list after the 13-year-old black Lab was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The story hit USA TODAY, and The Associated Press picked it up. It went viral.

Lampert had emails, voicemails, letters and Facebook messages from people from all over the globe who had heard about Cooper and his bucket list.

But Cooper died just a few days after the story came out.

Dog with terminal cancer checks items off bucket list

It has been hard on Lampert and her husband, Corey.

“It’s been lonely,” Lampert said as tears welled up in her eyes. “I sometimes call his name or think I hear him, but it’s just the cats. It’s been quiet and lonely.”

And while Lampert called Cooper perfect, he really wasn’t.

The little rascal had a habit of stealing into his Christmas stocking early.

She put his stocking out in October this year, well, because …

After Cooper, a 13-year-old black Lab, was diagnosed with cancer, his owners made him a bucket list that included a steak and potato dinner.

And he did what Cooper did.

“He just broke into it and got the rawhide bone,” Lampert said. “He walked around the house with it, banging it off the drier and the walls. He didn’t really chew it, he just walked around the house with it.”

On the eve of his death, Cooper’s breathing was very heavy, but in the morning it had improved greatly, so Lampert went to work.

Her mother, Lori, checked on Cooper as she always did in the afternoon. He was struggling.

Lampert took the rest of the day off, took him to McDonald’s for a burger and ice cream and then to Best Friends Animal Hospital, where they put him down.

“I was with him the whole time,” she said, tears again forming in her eyes.

She has taken some solace in the mini-celebrity Cooper became, trying to find all of the places where the article by former Tribune reporter Erin Madison has published.

New ones pop up all of the time.

Lampert also said she would like to encourage people to adopt shelter dogs.

She got Cooper at a shelter when he was 5 years old (at least that was the best guess at the time), and her home was Cooper’s third.

She hates the perception that she hears about shelter pets being, in effect, damaged goods.

“I got a shelter dog, and it was OK,” she said.

Probably better than OK.

Lampert’s parents, Bryon and Lori, built a final resting place for Cooper in a rustic theme to match the rest of the Lampert home. A rawhide bone sits in front.

The advice she gets most is to get another dog.

“Not right now,” she said, shaking her head.

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COOPER’S BUCKET LIST

Fulfilled

• Steak and potato dinner.

• Candle light massage from mom.

• Hamburger and ice cream at Dairy Queen.

• Road trip to drink cold creek water.

• Professional photo shoot.

• World’s best doughnut.

• October Christmas.

Unfulfilled

• Trip to great-grandparents.

• Petco.

• Breakfast in bed.

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