“It was a phenomenal moment. It was a phenomenal 15 years.”
Charlie Bear, a 15-year-old black lab mix battling a brain tumor, lived just long enough to see his human get married earlier this month.
The bride, Kelly O'Connell, met Charlie Bear when he was just 12 weeks old. After being found abandoned in a shopping cart outside a grocery store, he was brought to the animal shelter where O'Connell was working while studying to be a veterinarian — and it was love at first sight.
"I wasn’t looking for a dog," O'Connell told BuzzFeed News. "I was 19, still living with my parents and going to college. It was the worst time in my life to even attempt to get a dog.
"He came in, and I was like, 'Yup. I’m taking this puppy home,'" she said.
Jennifer Dziuvenis / Via Facebook: jendzphotography
Charlie became her "best friend." The two of them "grew up together" and moved from New York to Colorado.
In 2010, she met fellow veterinarian James Garvin, fell in love, and moved in with him and his two sons.
“Charlie got whatever he wanted," O'Connell said. "But I couldn’t offer him a family. As soon as I met James and the boys, it was the last thing that I could give him. We were one big happy family."
Jennifer Dziuvenis / Via Facebook: jendzphotography
One week before the wedding, Charlie had five seizures, and seemed to be suffering quite a bit. O'Connell and Garvin made arrangements for him to be put to sleep.
But, during the week leading up to the wedding, he had no seizures, no trouble walking, and "seemed like a whole new dog," O'Connell said. She thought he might actually make it to the wedding.
"I just thought, I want him to see this," she said.
O'Connell and Garvin were married on Sept. 1, with Charlie Bear and one of their other five dogs by their side.
O'Connell said she "immediately broke down" when Charlie Bear walked down the aisle to her.
"James and I just grabbed onto him, and we just kept saying, 'You made it, buddy, you made it.'"
Jennifer Dziuvenis / Via Facebook: jendzphotography
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