A man is an old dog’s best friend

I really, really wish I had a larger version of this to use as a wallpaper, as it captures the relationship between people and their animal companions so perfectly:

John Unger, lulling his sick 19-year-old dog Schoep to sleep in Lake Superior. Schoep has arthritis and has trouble sleeping, so every night John cradles the dog in his arms because he found that water helps ease the pooch’s pain. John rescued Schoep as an 8 month old puppy, and he’s been by his side through many adventures. Stonehouse Hudson posted the picture and the story to Facebook on August 1. To date it has more than 260,000 likes and over 150,000 shares. You can buy prints of the image here. Proceeds go toward Schoep’s vet bills.

A surprisingly large number of Survey respondents inform me of their dislike for “cute animal pictures”. How about “moving” photos?

(via @Maggie_McNeill; RT: @radleybalko)

Edit (08/10/12 4:12 PM ET) – Replaced Blogger-uploaded image with larger version.

Tags: John Unger • Schoep the dog • dogs