A dog is a mans best friend. The unconditional love between the two is a powerful thing. But to John Unger, his dog is everything.

Just have a look at the picture below, you may have seen it before, but do you know the real story behind it?

Meet John Unger from Bayfield, Wisconsin and his beloved pup ‘Schoep,’ named after the famous ice cream in Wisconsin.

John adopted Schoep when he was only a puppy after he was unfortunately, being abused by his previous human.
Now, at 19 years old, Schoep is suffering from arthiritis and regularly has trouble sleeping due to being in constant pain.

ohn, being the caring owner he is, found that Schoep’s pain eased under water as it took the pressure off his joints. So he decided to help him by taking him in the water every single day, and joined him while he was there.

He decided to take him to Lake Superior which is one of Schoep’s favorite spots anyways, and he took advantage of the lake’s summer temperature so his pup can finally relax.

John contacted his photographer friend Hannah Stonehouse Hudson who is the owner of Stonehouse Photography. He asked her to capture the relationship between him and his pup down by the water.

“This photo was from a last minute session. We had been trying to get together for weeks, but it kept not happening because of my travel schedule for Stonehouse. We finally got together last Tuesday (the 31st). I had about 5 minutes to shoot and this is what I caught — a man and his dog. John loving his Schoep, and Schoep trusting John so much he falls asleep in the buoyancy of the water. This is in no way posed. I hate posed photos. They never, ever capture the true essence of anything.”

The photo she took was the one that went viral and made it onto the news. Because of that, lots of people around the world began to donate so John can try other methods of pain management for Schoep.

Unfortunately, Schoep has now passed away, but the love behind this picture can be still felt around the world.