No-we’re not crying, you are! Schoep was a dog with arthritis that became popular on the Internet last summer after his photos of floating peacefully in the Lake Superior in his owner’s arms went viral.
The 20 year old dog has passed away and his owner John Unger wrote about his beloved pet’s death on his Facebook.
In a heartbreaking post, he wrote ‘I breathe, but I can’t catch my breath. Schoep passed yesterday.’
A Wonderful Bond that Will Be Remembered & Treasured Forever
The connection between Schoep and John was one of a kind and took the hearts of thousands of animal lovers when their story began circling the internet a year ago.
Unger feared that he was days before he would need to put down the then 19-year-old Schoep. In anticipation and fear from his loss, he asked from a friend of his to take one last photo of them.
His friend, the photographer Hannah Hudson, met with the best friends on the Lake Superior where Unger helped Schoep float and take the pressure off of his arthritic joints. She took a stunning photo of the two floating together in the lake and shared it on Facebook.
The image was reshared multiple times and led to numerous donations and support. Thanks to this, Unger could afford the necessary treatments to relieve the dog’s burden.
A Dog Owner that Every Dog Deserves to Have
Unger always wanted Schoep to experience everything and took him with him whenever he went and always walked him three times a day.
Unger says that the treatments have probably helped the senior dog live a year-and-a-half to two more.
He took him to trails where he hasn’t been and he wasn’t dragging the back legs as he did before. These special moments, Unger says, he will never forget.
Hudson, the photographer thanks to whom the human-dog-duo became popular, shared a moving status on Facebook after Schoep’s passing ‘RIPp Schoep. He had an amazing life and touched us all. Please, keep John in your thoughts’.
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