Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos had a difficult start to the year when their family dog, Chewie, passed away in February, leaving the pair grief-stricken and determined to hold on even tighter to their remaining pooch, Lena.

However, things went awry during their recent trip to Palm Springs when the Maltese Shih Tzu mix went missing, sparking a dramatic search that almost ended in tragedy.

A frantic search

Mark Consuelos sitting on couch with dog Lena© Instagram
Lena went missing on their trip to Palm Springs

On Wednesday’s edition of Live with Kelly and Mark, the couple were discussing the story of a missing dachshund who survived on a remote Australian island for over 500 days, adding that their own dog would not survive the ordeal. “I can’t imagine you losing Lena for a minute,” Kelly said.

“We did that the other day,” Mark replied, revealing that when he took her out for a potty break during their visit to Palm Springs, he thought that the pup had followed him back inside, only to realize that she was nowhere to be found.

He explained that the pair became frantic when they noticed their front gate was open; they then checked her GPS tracker, which indicated that Lena had gone next door. “We go next door, no Lena,” Kelly recounted.

Kelly Ripa and daughter Lola with family dog Lena Kelly described searching for Lena as “10 minutes of hell”

“And now the wind is picking up,” Mark added, sharing that they called her name for what felt like hours. Kelly broke down when she saw a palm frond on the road, thinking it was Lena.

“Now tears are streaming down my face, and I’m running because there’s my dog, and she’s been hit by a car,” she said, realizing it was not Lena. The pair decided to check their place again, only to find the dog curled up in her travel carrier, where she had been all along.

The mother of three shared that it was “10 minutes of hell” looking for Lena, adding that she would not survive out in the wild. “She’s got no survival skills. She would walk up to a lion and be like, ‘You’re a big dog.’ She doesn’t know how to be afraid of anything,” Kelly said.

The hardest goodbye

kelly ripa holding late dog chewie© Instagram
The pair said goodbye to Chewie in February

The TV personalities are keen dog lovers and opened up about saying goodbye to their pup Chewie in February.

“Chewie had stopped eating for a couple of days and had been eating less and less for the past few weeks. She was extremely dehydrated and had some neurological stuff going down,” Mark explained on the show.

 “And you think, ‘Okay, I’m doing the right thing, this is going to be not easy,’ but it’s probably one of the toughest things we’ve had to do as a married couple.”

kelly ripa sitting on stairs near pet dogs© Instagram
Kelly spoke about the immense grief of losing her dog

“I know pet owners at home can understand this,” he added. “It takes a pet owner to understand this kind of loss. It’s grief. It really is grief. But knowing that we did the right thing because it was just going to be really, really, really bad over the next few days for her.”

Kelly said tearfully: “She gave us so much…As each one of our kids left for college and moved out on our own, Chewie remained right there. Our steadfast companion.”