George H.W. Bush's Service Dog Sully Receives Public Service Award for Bringing Love and Joy

service dog with two senior people
Chris Stoddard
Chris Stoddard

Sully was honoured for “bringing not just assistance but love and joy to the former president in the last months of his life.”

Put your paws together for Sully!

Former President George H.W. Bush‘s service dog recently will receive a 2019 ASPCA Humane Award. The yellow Labrador has earned the Public Service Award, “which is given to an outstanding animal or a public service officer who has made a heroic effort to save an animal’s life in the past year or has demonstrated a commitment to his or her career,” according to the ASPCA. He will receive the award on Nov. 14 at the ASPCA Humane Awards Luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.

The “extraordinary” canine, who served as Bush’s service dog from June 2018 until the former president’s death in Nov. 2018, was given the honour for “bringing not just assistance but love and joy to the former president in the last months of his life.”

Sully was trained by America’s VetDogs and placed with Bush, after Bush was hospitalised several times in 2018. The pair quickly formed a deep, trusting friendship that extending beyond Bush’s life. The service dog’s loyalty to Bush was immortalised in a photo of the Lab guarding Bush’s coffin after his death.

ASPCA also chose Sully for the Public Service Award because of those he has helped after Bush’s death.

The dog now works as a hospital corpsman second class and facility dog at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he comforts injured veterans and their families and also assists with rehabilitation centre sessions. “For demonstrating outstanding dedication to President Bush and veterans at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Sully is the recipient of the 2019 ASPCA Public Service Award,” the ASPCA shared.

Other 2019 ASPCA Humane Award winners include Hannah “Kitten Lady” Shaw, for her work rescuing neonatal kittens and teaching others how to do the same, and Sweet Pea, a former dog-fighting victim who has become the face of dog-fighting awareness for New Jersey.

 

(Story source: People.com)

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