![]() ![]() “I kept saying, ‘You made it buddy,'” she said, “You made it.” O’Connell says she’ll never forget the smile on Charlie’s face. “It’s hard to look at them without crying every time,” she said. And pictures O’Connell says are “priceless.” “It was a beautiful moment,” O’Connell said.īut Charlie didn’t leave without giving them the one last gift of his presence on a really special day. “James and I dropped to our knees and started crying,” she said.Ĭharlie died eight days after their wedding, surrounded by his loving family in front of a fireplace. Lloyd, 38, carried the 80-pound labrador mix down the aisle. 1, Katie Lloyd carried Charlie Bear, 15, her sister's dying dog, down the aisle during her sister's wedding in Buena Vista, Colorado.On Sept. “The amazing human that she is, scooped him up and carried him” Dziuvenis said. So when it came time for Charlie to walk down the aisle, Katie Lloyd, the bride’s sister and maid of honor, stepped in. The late 15-year-old black lab mix, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor five months prior to the ceremony, hobbled down the grassy aisle but was unable to stand up and follow his owner after the ceremony began. ![]() The wedding took place at 9,000 feet near Buena Vista, and Charlie became tired. Kelly O'Connell's dream Colorado wedding was made even more special by the appearance of her sick dog, Charlie, being carried down the aisle by her maid of honor. “But the excitement and elevation was too much for him.” “He was playing with kids before,” photographer Jen Dziuvenis said. “(Gavin) grew to love him just as much as I did,” she said, “(Charlie) was a symbol of the coming together of the family,” she said.Ĭharlie was active and playful during the hours before the wedding. Kelly O’Connell’s wedding day will forever be special in more ways than one. The investigation is being treated as an accidental death, Matlock. In the five years since she had met Garvin, Charlie had fit right in with Garvin and his sons. There was a married couple and they actually rescued the dog five years ago, he said. To have Charlie at her wedding to now-husband James Garvin was important to her. “It had been four months of watching him deteriorate,” she said. “I adopted him as a puppy,” she said, “I was 19 years old.”Īs much as she wanted him to be with her forever, she didn’t want to extend his life in suffering. So when she learned her canine companion of 15 years was dying of a brain tumor, she was devastated. “We had tons of adventures together,” she said. ![]() Charlie was Kelly O’Connell’s “best fur friend.” Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.īUENA VISTA, Colo. He must’ve been on his shoulders for about an hour, it was a long way down.This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. “The ranger then picked him back up over his shoulders and walked all the way back down to the street. When they finally reached a stream, the park ranger then “laid him in the water as he knelt beside him and poured water on him,” Daniel said. “It was a LONG distance - a couple miles down an incredibly rocky path.” Salapek, Daniel says, then lifted the large dog onto his back and started carrying him down to safety. “The owner brought along a huge jug, but no amount of water seemed to be helping,” she told the Good News Network.ĭaniel added that the owner, much too fatigued to carry the dog off the treacherous mountain trail by himself, “called the park rangers ASAP,” and reported their location before supervisory park ranger Kris Salapek found them on the mountainside trail shortly after. After donating all of their water to the K9 in need, however, Daniel says the group was still afraid that it wouldn’t be enough to keep the pup alive after seeing the dire shape he was in. Lexie Daniel and a group of hikers encountered a man last week whose dog appeared to be severely overheated and dehydrated. (Photo: Lexie Daniel via GNN)Īs temperatures soared in the mountainous hills of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area, a struggling, dehydrated pooch needed a hero. Kris Salapek's heroics likely saved the dog's life. ![]()
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