Pet Photo Touches The Heart

While surfing the internet I stumbled across this touching photo. In my opinion it gets pet photo of the year!  The news story is by Scott Stump.

The photo is by Lisa Pembleton at her cousin's funeral. Jon Tumilson was a Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan along with 29 others when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter in August. The dog's name is Hawkeye and belonged to Tumilson. The Labrodor retriever "walked up to the casket at the beginning of the service and then dropped down with a heaving sigh as about 1,500 mourners witnessed a dog accompanying his master until the end."

The shot originally appeared on Pembleton's Facebook page.

She said this of the experience: “I felt compelled to take one photo to share with family members that couldn't make it or couldn't see what I could from the aisle.”

According to Stump's story, the family honored the dog's relationship to Tumilson by allowing him to lead the family down the aisle at the funeral. Once everyone was seated, Hawkeye followed a friend of Tumilson's to the stage where the friend began to give a few remarks and Hawkeye laid down. That friend will now care for Hawkeye.

The shot was taken in the gymnasium at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock Community School.