For Amanda Keller, home has long been filled with the familiar comforts of family life — her husband Harley Oliver, their children and, for 14 years, a beloved border collie named Mini.
The Australian radio and television personality became emotional on Jonesy & Amanda on Monday, September 14, as she shared the heartbreaking news that Mini had died.
“I lost my dog yesterday, poor old Mini as they say, she crossed the rainbow bridge,” Amanda said through tears.
Rather than presenting the usual programme, the team had chosen to air a “best of” show, giving Amanda space to process the loss while still deciding whether being on air might help her through it.
“Sometimes when you’ve got a job like this, ‘This can save me today’ or it can be the hardest thing,” she said.
For Amanda, there was no easy answer. She simply wanted to be there, talk about what had happened and take the day as it came.
The dog Amanda called “the sunshine and the glue”
Now, one of those familiar presences is gone.
Just days before Mini’s passing, Amanda had spoken openly about the devastating diagnosis that had changed the family’s final weeks together.
Mini was 14 years old when Amanda noticed a couple of lumps beneath her neck while having coffee with her son Liam and the dog, shortly after this year’s TV Week Logie Awards.
A visit to the vet brought the news no pet owner wants to hear: Mini had lymphoma.
Amanda was initially told they might have between four and eight weeks with her, although even that was uncertain.
“I wasn’t going to cry, but I’ve cried every day for the last two weeks,” she admitted during the September 2 broadcast.
At the time, Mini was still at home with the family — and Amanda was determined to make whatever time remained count.
“This is my 14-year-old border collie, who in my home is the sunshine and the glue,” she said.
That description now carries an even deeper weight.
A family already facing its own difficult chapter
Mini’s illness came at a particularly emotional time for Amanda and her family.
Her husband, Harley Oliver, has been living with Parkinson’s disease, and Amanda has previously spoken candidly about the realities of caring for him as his condition has progressed.
She explained that carers were already part of their life at home, but despite the difficulties, it remained a “happy, loving house”.
And Mini had been an important part of that happiness.
“The dog is absolutely the burst of sunshine,” Amanda said.
It was why saying goodbye felt so difficult.
Amanda also admitted that while she understood an older dog could not be with a family forever, knowing that intellectually did not make the reality any easier.
“You know you will outlive your pet, but somehow you forget”
During her earlier conversation about Mini’s diagnosis, Amanda reflected on the strange bargain that comes with loving an animal.
At 14, Mini had lived a long life, and Amanda knew her family had been fortunate to have her for so many years.
But that knowledge did little to soften the impending farewell.
“I know very well she’s had a brilliant life. We’ve loved her so much, and she’s loved us,” Amanda said.
“When you enter that contract, you know you will outlive your pet, but somehow you forget that.”
That may be one of the most painful parts of Amanda’s story — not that she did not understand what was coming, but that knowing it was coming could never prepare her for the moment it actually arrived.
The walks that became something more
In Mini’s final weeks, even ordinary walks had taken on a different meaning.
Amanda spoke about seeing other owners with older dogs and recognising something in them: the quiet understanding that their time together is precious, and that every ordinary walk may become a memory one day.
She knew she was sharing those fleeting moments with Mini while they lasted.
And that knowledge made them both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Friends and fellow Australian television personalities rallied around Amanda and her family after she shared the news.
Veterinarian Dr Chris Brown offered words of comfort, while former Gogglebox star Yvie Jones and television presenter Melissa Doyle also shared emotional messages of support.
Their responses reflected something many pet owners understand instinctively: for a family, the loss of a dog is not simply the loss of a pet. It is the loss of a presence woven into everyday life.
A goodbye after 14 years of love
Amanda has spent the past few weeks trying to make peace with something no amount of preparation could make easy.
Mini was there through years of family life, quietly becoming part of the rhythm of home — the familiar face waiting at the end of the day, the companion on walks and, in Amanda’s own words, the “sunshine and the glue”.
Now that space is empty.
On air, Amanda could not hide her grief. But perhaps there was something quietly comforting in the way she spoke about Mini: not only with sadness, but with gratitude for the life they had shared.
Fourteen years was, as Amanda acknowledged, a “good innings” for a dog.
And although the goodbye came sooner than she wanted, Mini left knowing the one thing that mattered most — that she had been deeply, completely loved.