She was living in New York at the time and Charlie, a 12-week-old black lab mix, had been found in a shopping cart. It was the middle of winter.

O’Connell wasn’t in the market for a dog, but she and Charlie were meant for each other. She felt it. She knew it.

“It was just kind of like, yeah he’s mine,” O’Connell told the Washington Post.

Years passed. Kelly and Charlie moved to Colorado. Then Kelly met James Garvin, found love and the pair moved in together. Charlie came too, of course.

O’Connell and Garvin, both veterinarians, were married this month. And they hoped Charlie, 15, would be there, too. Earlier this year, he’d been diagnosed with a brain tumor. His health was slipping, and they knew he didn’t have much time left.

“I had actually made an appointment for somebody to come to the house and we were going to put him down a week before the wedding, because he had had five seizures and we were just like ‘this is too much, I don’t want to do this for him anymore,’” O’Connell said. “Eventually, it was almost as if he was like, ‘No, I want to see this.’ He got better.”

Charlie Bear made it to the wedding. He even went down the aisle. But he couldn’t make it back. So the maid of honor, O’Connell’s sister, carried him.

“There isn’t enough mascara in the world for these moments,”Jen Dziuvenis, the wedding’s photographer, wrote in a Facebook post. “Dog people are the best people.”

“The world,” O’Connell said of her sister’s effort. “It meant the world to me.”

“This is what love looks like,” Dziuvenis said of the moment. “Love for family, love for animals, love for your sister. It was just the most touching display of that that I’ve seen, and it was spur of the moment, it just happened, because that’s how these people are.”

After O’Connell’s sister carried Charlie back down the aisle, bride and groom dropped to their knees and hugged him.

“I just kept saying, ‘You made it buddy, you made it,’” O’Connell said. “He just had a giant grin on his face.”

As a vet, O’Connell understands the struggles pet owners go through wondering when it’s time to say goodbye to an ailing loved one. She tells people to count five things that their dog loved, and if they can take away three of those things, then its clear their pet’s quality of life is dropping. Charlie had been O’Connell’s marathon-training buddy, so seeing him not be able to walk a few feet, she said, was “kind of like a sucker-punch to the gut.”

“I think despite that feeling though, when I look at the pictures, especially the one where the flowers are all around him, I just think he looks so happy,” she said. “Looking at those makes me think, he just wanted to see that, us come together, and I guess his mom be taken care of.”

O’Connell said Charlie was put down a few days after the ceremony. She described the wedding pictures as “priceless, absolutely priceless.”

“He may not have been able to do what he wanted to do, and his body was definitely failing him,” O’Connell said. “But he was happy to be there.”

The post Maid of Honor Carries Bride’s Dying Dog Down the Aisle appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

Just recently, they were contacted about a severely abused dog. The poor dog was intentionally starved by a cruel person. This dog was at the brink of death; she was just skin and bones when they rescued her. She was so malnourished that her organs started shutting down.

They named the poor dog Angel. Sadly, Angel was dying. Only a miracle could save her.

Many volunteers came to support Angel and give her hope. One of them was this sweet little girl.

Angel may have little hope in surviving, but Rescue From The Hart didn’t give up on her. Watch the video below and see how they saved this sweet dog.

The post Little Girl Stares Into The Eyes Of A Dying Dog, But Then THIS Happens–Just Incredible! appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

Londyn was emaciated, sickly, and ready to die outside of a San Antonio high school until five teen guys saved her life.  A fundraiser for her medical care has already been exceeded, and she’s been taken in by a rescue group who is trying to find her a home where she can recover.

The five students – Brandon Noriega, Roland Bazan, Joseph Rangel, Ivan Zarate, and Luis Villanueva – saw her ambling around near the track outside of their classroom.

“It broke my heart, ya know,” Rangel told KENS 5.
The boys brought her water and took turns sitting with her until rescuers from Protecting Animals within San Antonio (PAWS) could arrive to help. Because the group has a club on campus, the students already knew who to contact.

“[We’re] trying to lower the stray population in San Antonio. It’s a really big issue that not many people pay attention to. But we’re trying to raise awareness and get more people involved,” said PAWS president Samantha Jasso.

Only weighing 27 pounds when she was found, rescuers said the six- or seven-year-old Lab mix likely had only hours left to live.  She was taken to Callaghan Animal Hospital where, in addition to being severely malnourished and loaded with ticks, Londyn was diagnosed with a venereal tumor, heartworms and Ehrlichiosis (a disease transmitted by ticks that can destroy many of the body’s systems).

She survived on garbage and knew nothing of human kindness, so the first few days were difficult.  She wasn’t eating well and the likelihood of her survival was slim.  A fundraiser of $2,500 was launched to cover the costs of chemotherapy and other treatment.  Within days, donations surpassed $2,600.

After a week in the clinic, she was taken to a foster home where she finally ate a full meal.  Her weakened condition left her unable to do much more than stumble around, but now she’s gaining enough strength to walk a little bit.  She is still easily exhausted and has trouble sitting and lying down without assistance.  But she’s learning to trust humans and is coming out of her shell.

She still has a long way to go, but her foster dad Daniel is working to make her stronger and more confident and trusting every day. She will begin chemo on the 21st of this month.

If you would like to donate to Londyn’s fundraiser, CLICK HERE. For more information or to see updates on her, check out PAWS’ Facebook page.

The post Texas Teenagers Save the Life of an Abandoned, Dying Dog appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

The post You Won’t Believe What Happened When This Dying Dog Met An Autistic Boy. Just Amazing. appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.