“This guy passed away today,” Chelsea wrote as she shared a picture of Chunk. “I’m crying because of how much I loved him. My chunky monkey.”
Handler adopted Chunk from a shelter in 2009 when he was nine-years-old. Chunk became a permanent fixture at Chelsea’s side and even appeared on the cover of her book Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang.
Chunk also had a huge social media following with over 170,000 people following his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“My favorite memory of Chunk is when I was paddle boarding on the Hudson River in upstate NY and he was following me on the shoreline by the trees, and finally jumped in and swam a quarter of a mile to get on my paddle board with me. I cried that day at how much he loved me,” Chelsea reminisced.
Chelsea followed up her Instagram post with another picture of her hugging Chunk, telling fans, “I don’t know who did my hair this day…but I do know that this pic of Chunk epitomizes how deeply dignified he was. We were a couple. Thank you for your outpouring of affection. This is the one upsides of social media.”