Kelsea Ballerini’s Dog Dibs Dies After Cancer Diagnosis

Kelsea brought the puppy home in 2015, naming him after her then-new song “Dibs.”

“I was on the bus with my band and I’m like, ‘What do I name my dog?'” she recalled on 99.5 KD Country WKDP. “We’re going through all the names and I’m like, ‘Guys, what about Dibs?’ And they’re like, ‘Kelsea, that’s so lame. We’re not calling the dog Dibs if you call him that, no.'”

So, the “Baggage” singer settled on the name Knox because she’s from Knoxville, Tenn., but she changed her mind after visiting the breeder. 

“She goes, ‘Hey, I know it’s none of my business, I know you’re gonna name him Knox, but you should really name him Dibs,'” Kelsea remembered. “I was like, ‘That’s a sign.’ But it’s cool too because it was the week that ‘Dibs’ went to radio and the week that I got him, so it’s a good little reminder.”

Her dog was diagnosed with inoperable heart cancer in 2024 and lived out his last year with many adventures: seeing Kelsea as a coach on The Voice, touring the world with her new album Patterns and celebrating one last holiday season, which Kelsea captioned on Instagram, “a very merry dibsmas & christmas indeed.”