Sully, Bush’s service dog, lies by his casket before one last journey with the former president

As former President George H.W. Bush is being laid to rest, his service dog Sully is among those mourning the 94-year-old's death. 

Sunday night, family spokesman Jim McGrath shared a photo of the yellow Labrador retriever sleeping benext to Bush's casket. He wrote, "Mission complete."

Sully was appointed to the 41st president in June. At the time, Bush welcomed Sully, from nonprofit America's VetDogs, as a "member of the family" who was "beautifully trained."

Since then, the dog accompanied Bush nearly everywhere, even the voting booth during the November midterm election.

Sully will go on to work alongside other service dogs helping wounded soldiers and active duty personnel at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center's Facility Dog Program, according to America's VetDogs.

Bush's family announced his death Friday. Monday, his remains were flown from Ellington Field in Houston to the Joint Base Andrews military facility in Maryland. The public may pay respects at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington from Monday to Wednesday.

A state funeral will be held at the Washington National Cathedral, beginning at 11 a.m. Wednesday. It will be the first presidential funeral since Gerald Ford died in 2006.

President George H.W. Bush's spokesman has posted a photo of the late president's service dog lying in front of a flag-draped casket. Jim McGrath tweeted a picture Sunday of the yellow Labrador retriever named Sully with the caption, "Mission complete. #Remembering41."

The nation's 41st president died Friday at his home in Houston at 94. He will be honored during several public and private events in Houston and Washington before his burial Thursday in Texas.

Bush received Sully in June from America's VetDogs nonprofit organization. The president had a form of Parkinson's disease, and Sully could open doors, pick up items and summon help.

KTRK-TV in Houston reports Sully will return to America's VetDogs in New York through the holiday season before joining the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center's Facility Dog Program.

The yellow Labrador retriever appeared woebegone, his head slack over his front left paw, his muzzle resting on the ground. Yet he was also steadfast, still keeping watch over George H.W. Bush, the 41st president, who died Friday at his home in Houston.

After accompanying the statesman and World War II veteran in the final months of his life, Sully, the late president’s service dog, lay before the casket holding what remained of him.

The display of instinctual, animalistic devotion captured the reaction to Bush’s death in a way that the words spilled all weekend over the Internet could not. Dogs, wrote the poet Emily Dickinson, “know but do not tell.”

In his knowing pose, the dog was at rest. He will accompany his person a final time, as Bush’s body is flown from Houston to Washington, CNN reported. An arrival ceremony is expected Monday at the Capitol, where Bush will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until Wednesday, when family members and friends will gather for a funeral at Washington National Cathedral.

“Mission complete,” Jim McGrath, the Bush spokesman who shared a photo of the service dog’s mournful stance Sunday, wrote on Twitter.

The moving image also appeared on the Facebook page of America’s VetDogs, a service dog program that assists veterans, active-duty service members and first responders with disabilities. The Labrador was raised by VetDogs, first through its prison puppy program that gives inmates a chance to teach animals the basic tasks of housebreaking and standardized commands, and then at the program’s campus in Smithtown, N.Y.

Sully was matched to Bush in June of this year, when he was almost 2. He is named after former commercial airline pilot Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, who safely landed a plane on the Hudson River in 2009.

Bush welcomed “the newest member of our family” the same day he received a visit from former president Bill Clinton, a friend and onetime political adversary, at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine. The occasion was also distinguished by a sartorial salute Bush made to his successor. He wore a pair of socks imprinted with Clinton’s face.

The former president came to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in the final years of his life because of a form of Parkinson’s disease. Among the services that Sully was able to perform for Bush were retrieving dropped items, opening and closing doors, pushing an emergency button and supporting him when standing. As the dog went about these tasks, he amassed a following on social media, including on his own Instagram account, which boasted more than 98,000 followers as of early Monday.

Sully celebrated his birthday in July with a bone tied in a bright pink bow. Last week, he was already preparing for Christmas. On Sunday, the photo of the service dog lying before Bush’s casket became the latest post

Although his presidential mission is complete, Sully’s work isn’t done. America’s VetDogs said the Labrador will join the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he will assist with “physical and occupational therapy to wounded soldiers and active duty personnel during their journey to recovery.”

That Sully will continue to serve veterans was a source of comfort for the Bush family. George W. Bush, the late president’s son and 43rd president, predicted that the dog will bring joy to patients at Walter Reed. Jeb Bush, the president’s younger son and a 2016 contender for the Republican presidential nomination, also weighed in.

“Sully has the watch,” he wrote on Twitter.

The 41st president’s devotion to dogs was not born of necessity alone. Long before he came to rely on man’s best friend to move around, he and his wife, Barbara Bush, who died in April, kept the company of Millie, an English springer spaniel named for Mildred Caldwell Kerr, a friend of the couple. The pet was once declared “the most famous dog in White House history.”

Bush did, however, use the dog to score political points, although they didn’t always land effortlessly.

In a campaign speech in 1992, the incumbent Republican president attacked Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore by saying, “My dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos.”

Sully, by contrast, bore none of the weight of his person’s political ambitions. Sometimes he appeared with the American flag, such as on the Fourth of July. At other points, he was used to promote guide dogs.

But mostly, he was just at Bush’s side, which is where he remained after the president’s death.