Many of us know Mickey Rourke, the popular Hollywood actor.
What we may not know is his special relationship with one of his beloved Chihuahuas.
In an interview with Barbara Walters in 2009, the actor recalled a touching and dramatic event, where his dog had prevented him from committing suicide, while he was going through some difficult times.
The day of the 2009 Golden Globes show, he told Barbara Walters that "I sort of self-destructed and everything came out about 14 years ago or so ... the wife had left, the career was over, the money was not an ounce. The dogs were there when no one else was there." Asked by Walters if he had considered suicide, he responded:
Yeah, I didn't want to be here, but I didn't want to kill myself. I just wanted to push a button and disappear.... I think I hadn't left the house for four or five months, and I was sitting in the closet, sleeping in the closet for some reason, and I was in a bad place, and I just remember I was thinking, "Oh, man, if I do this," [and] then I looked at my dog, Beau Jack, and he made a sound, like a little almost human sound. I don't have kids, the dogs became everything to me. The dog was looking at me going, "Who's going to take care of me?"
Beau Jack died in 2002, although Rourke reportedly gave him 45 minutes of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. On February 16, 2009, Loki died in Rourke's arms at the age of 18
One of the most powerful stories of love between man and his four-legged friend, a Chihuahua, which the actor adopted from a shelter.
Though Rourke's dogs are generally referred to as "chihuahuas", some are not purebred. Loki, his most-publicized dog whom he described as "the love of my life", was a chihuahua-terrier mix.
The 77-year-old actor's love for dogs has been known for years as there are quite few dogs he has saved from euthanasia. He is also working closely with PETA, which is fighting for animal rights.