Oprah with Gracie, and other dogs, on the cover of the January 2007 issue of O Magazine

Oprah Winfrey suffered a huge heartbreak when one of her beloved pooches died in a freak accident. Gracie, a golden retriever who was the littlest of Oprah's three pups, was killed when Oprah's dog walker took the three dogs out for an evening stroll.

Oprah got a call twenty minutes later saying Gracie was not breathing. "I ran barefoot out of the house and found the dog walker and one of my security guys pumping her chest," Oprah says in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. "Just as I reached them, the security guard looked up... 'She's gone."

Gracie had chocked on a plastic ball that belonged to Oprah's much older cocker spaniel, Sophie. Oprah immediately felt the loss of her favorite pup. She was flooded with "tears and stabbing pain and disbelief and wonder and questions about how and why this happened."

Though Oprah's in pain, she believes a lesson can be learned from all of this. "Slow down, you're moving too fast... Thank you for being my saving Gracie."

Labels: Oprah Winfrey