SMITHTOWN, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — The service dog who stayed by the side of former president George H.W. Bush, even after he passed away, has a new job.
Sully, who served Bush in the last six months of his life, is now helping other veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.
John Miller, from America’s Vet Dogs in Smithtown, where Sully was trained, says the pup’s main job will be "putting smiles on faces." He says Sully will mostly be assisting soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I heard a statistic at Walter Reed yesterday that every hour he’ll touch 12 different lives positively,” Miller notes.
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The 2-year-old yellow Labrador was named after Capt. Chesley Sullenberger of the “Miracle on the Hudson” and had returned to Long Island for a few months after Bush’s death, where he spent time with his trainer and other dogs he grew up with.
Miller said that although Bush’s death greatly impacted Sully, when he left Long Island for his new job, “he went into it with a big smile and he had his tail wagging 100 miles per hour.”
Sully became famous when a Bush family spokesman tweeted out a picture of him next to Bush's casket. The pup joined the former president as a companion following the death of wife, Barbara Bush, in April 2018.