MANILA — Actress and animal adoption advocate Heart Evangelista is mourning the death of one her foster dogs — the first since she started rescuing animals at age 13.

Evangelista, 35, shared the sad news in her April 28 vlog, a compilation of several days worth of her home activities during the coronavirus lockdown.

A portion of the nearly 20-minute video shows a weeping Evangelista, telling her viewers that her latest foster pet, a puppy named Linda, has died.

"I was only with her for half a day, but I've never been so attached to a foster," she said, in tears. "I usually foster a lot, but this one was extra special, and I actually thought of keeping her but she died. She had complications."

"I don't really share moments when I'm so freakin' ugly and I'm just so sad. I tried to stay very positive with my vlogs all the time, but I just wanted to say that fostering is really hard," she said.

Evangelista has long been an advocate of animal rescue and adoption. She has several stray dogs, or "aspin" (asong Pinoy) as she calls them, under her care which she then sends for adoption once they are in good health.

She is also a long-time ambassador of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society or PAWS, and in 2019 launched her own animal welfare facility in Sorsogon, where her husband, Chiz Escudero, is governor.

"When I look back, I'm glad that even if I was with her for half a day, I was able to make her feel really loved," she said, referring to Linda, intercut with footage of the late puppy getting dressed by Evangelista.

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"Despite the heartaches, I do still very much support the idea of fostering. It's just very hard because she was really such an angel," she said.

In her Instagram Stories, Evangelista explained she had never experienced death of a rescued animal since she started fostering at 13.

"It's always hard to give them away, but it's the first time I feel like I failed," she wrote. "I've had cases of unhealthy dogs but they always seem to survive. Never lost a pup."

"Just really, really loved her. I knew she was going to end up with us," she added.

In her vlog, a crying Evangelista said she would take a break from chronicling her daily lockdown activities. The next portion of the video was recorded "a few days later."

While appearing to still be in low spirits, Evangelista opted for an optimistic mindset.

"Today I have to go on and do the things that I need to do and really get myself together. We're going begin the day really, really well," she said.