Presidents club assembles for Bush

Sully the dog

Among those attending Bush's memorial was Sully, the former president's service dog for the last six months. The yellow Labrador retriever visited the late president's casket in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday alongside people in wheelchairs who benefited from the Americans With Disabilities Act that Bush signed in 1990.

Two-year-old Sully was named for retired airline pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III, who became famous for landing a damaged passenger jet on the Hudson River in 2009, saving everyone aboard.

The dog achieved worldwide fame after a Bush family spokesman tweeted a photo of Sully laying by Bush's flag-draped casket with the caption: "Mission completed".

Sully traveled to Washington with the funeral retinue. And on Tuesday morning, officials issued a two-minute warning for Sully's arrival in the Rotunda. Sully padded in, his leash held by Valerie Cramer, America's Vet-Dogs service dog program manager.

At her command, he lay down－and threw a glance over his shoulder at the photographers scrambling to get his photo. He didn't seem fazed. Cramer then led him around the casket to sit among the others. After a few minutes, the procession headed out. Sully is headed back to America's VetDogs in Smithtown, New York, where he was born and trained, Miller said.

AP/REUTERS