Happy tail: How the Internet changed ’floating dog’s’ life

Happy tail: How the Internet changed ’floating dog’s’ life

Knowing he might be only days away from having to euthanize his beloved dog of 19 years, John Unger wanted a friend to take a picture of the two of them together one last time.

Courtesy Julie McGarvie Unger

"I've taken him for walks on trails that we haven't been on in three years."

The resulting photo of Unger floating peacefully in Lake Superior while comforting his ailing shepherd mix, Schoep, went viral after photographer Hannah Stonehouse Hudson posted it on her Facebook page on Aug. 1. The subsequent outpouring of online donations has allowed Unger to afford treatments to help alleviate his dog's condition, and he is cherishing the newfound time that he has with Schoep. As best as I can guess, the treatments have turned back the clock on his life about a year-and-a-half to two years,’’ Unger told TODAY.com. “I’ve taken him for walks on trails that we haven’t been on in three years. He’s not dragging his back legs like he was before. To be able to do that again with him, words can’t even describe the feeling.’’

The arthritic dog has been receiving weekly laser therapy for the past 45 days in addition to a daily glucosamine supplement and pain pill. Schoep also has a special elevated dog bowl that prevents him from having to lean down as far to eat. Lake Superior is too cold for Unger and Schoep to take any more swims until next spring, but Unger is able to take regular walks with a companion that has been with him since he and his then-fiancee adopted him as a rescue dog nearly 20 years ago. 

The viral photo was a game changer.

“Literally overnight, I went to bed and the next day when the photo went viral, it was a whole new ballgame for me and for Schoep,’’ Unger said. “It’s still overwhelming for me in a sense. I knew the amount that was coming in would be way over the limit that Schoep was going to need for the rest of his life. I just thought, ‘I have to give back.’’’

Courtesy Julie McGarvie Unger

Donations from strangers online have allowed John Unger's dog, Schoep, to receive laser treatment for his arthritic condition.

The result of that impulse is the newly-created non-profit Schoep Legacy Foundation, which is dedicated to the improvement of animal and human welfare, Unger said. The foundation has already collected $25,000 in donations. The funds exceeding the cost of the care for Schoep will go toward helping low-income families in the area near Unger’s home in Bayfield, Wis., take care of older pets as well as assist in the spaying and neutering of pets. When the money started pouring in, Unger spoke with Hudson as well as Schoep’s veterinarian, Dr. Erik Haukass, and they suggested creating the foundation.

“Now that we have started this foundation, it’s a pretty incredible feeling that I can help the people in this area and start thinking of other non-profit organizations to donate to or partner with throughout the rest of the United States,’’ Unger said. “I’m just so excited that I’ll be able to give back in some certain way.’’

Courtesy Julie McGarvie Unger

John Unger and Schoep dry off after recently taking their final dip in Lake Superior until next spring.

It is the perfect legacy for a dog has been with Unger through some of the hardest times of his life, including a fateful day on the banks of Lake Michigan years ago.

“I went out on the breakwater and I was thinking about committing suicide,” he told TODAY.com in August. “And I was out there for about an hour just thinking about things and it came to the point of me thinking, ‘OK, this is the time.’ And I looked down at Schoep and I don’t know what it was ... he had a look like no other time he looked at me. I look back at it now and he knew something was wrong.”

Unger did not really have any pictures of the two together, which led him to call Hudson after getting a grim diagnosis from the veterinarian in late July. One photo later and the online community changed everything for a man who said he is new to the Internet and Facebook and does not own a cell phone.

“It’s astonishing the support we’re receiving,’’ he said. “It’s been 6-and-a-half weeks that I have had extra time with Schoep rather than putting him down, and I cherish every day.’’

For more information on the Schoep Legacy Foundation go to www.johnandschoep.com

Courtesy Julie McGarvie Unger

Unger is cherishing every day with Schoep.

Things I never thought I'd do - repeat

Another early post repeat

Things I had never done...part deux

When I was looking at the first list of things I had never done and thinking about things I never thought I would ever do in my life, I realized that the list has updated a bit since that post. Welcome to my world.

• get excited to see Pepsi on the grocery store shelf
• take my phone everywhere
• bake fun treats
• play Skip-Bo on a regular basis
• consider (and actually get) our version of TiVo
• search for brand names that I recognize from the US
• never shop at Wally World
• search unsuccessfully for popcorn to pop on the stovetop
• see deer, alpaca and llama farms along the main roads
• pay $100 to fill up the gas tank
• see sea anemones
• ponder insulation
• cheer out loud when I heard Doritos are coming to NZ
• enter local photo contests
• wonder how old the tv shows are and smile to find out when one is less than two years old
• drive a big station wagon
• see lighthouses
• have a bridge built for me
• get excited to find something that tastes like hot dogs (frankfurters) and polish sausage (kranskies)
• ride a gondola up a mountain
• take an interest in the Maori language to see what town names mean
• rarely leave the house without my camera
• see ads on tv that I think are tacky and tasteless
• buy fresh veggies every payday
• make bottle rockets with vinegar and baking soda
• experiment with 'exotic' cheeses while looking for a substitute for Meunster
• have a clothes dryer hung upside down over the washer
• call orange road cones 'rabbits'
• see geysers and boiling mud up close and personal
• eat Vegemite
• see black swans, wild pukekos, waxeyes, kiwis, wild goats, fantails, tuis
• be aware when American tv shows are on--as opposed to BBC or cable stations that are mostly through Australia

Trivia - A repeat post

More NZ trivia

My first post of NZ trivia can be found here. I thought I'd give you a little more to wonder about marvel at from this strange interesting place.

• NZ has about 600 museums and art galleries.
• The first white women to arrive were escaped convicts from Australia in 1806.
• 'Cervena' is the trade name for farm-raised NZ deer.
• Prostitution was decriminalized in 2003.
• In 1898, 'old age pension' was introduced in NZ, the first of it's kind in the world. 
• The 'widow's pension' became law in 1911.
• There are 30 species of fleas here.
• NZ's first record-pressing plant opened in Wellington in 1948. The first record produced was 'Buttons and Bows' by Dinah Shore.
• Leonard Deogood was a Charlie Chaplin impersonator who starred in several NZ comedies in the 1920's.
• Color TVs came to NZ in 1973.
• 23,000 NZers worked on the Lord of the Rings movies.
• The international date line passes about 160 kilometers from Gisborne.
• Gavin McCormick formed his own political party, called "The Pull Yourself Together Party".
• New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote.
• Pygmy pines grow in the alpine regions of NZ.
• Kaimanawa horses are a feral breed that roam in the Kaimanawa mountains of the northern island.

Early post repeat

This is a repeat from 01-09.

Well, it's getting to be summer again.  It was 40C [which is 104F for my yankee friends] today. I do love the warm much more than I despise the cold and hubby has promised that we will move someplace much warmer when the kids are a bit older.    Until then, the summer pjs that I brought with me from Kansas will, most likely, stay in the drawer, since the nights are quite chilly under the mountain and I've only worn them one night since I've been here.

This, my friends, is some of the best surfing in the world--or so I am told.  This is in the southern part of Taranaki.  Personally, I will just take someone else's word for it because I have no intentions of taking up the sport.  Maybe the biggest reason is that I have never really lived close to an ocean, so I feel very insignificant when I stand on the shore and I'm pretty sure that the water wouldn't be upset if it swept me out to my doom.

There is an interesting story behind this rock.  Keeping in mind the aforementioned fact that the surfing is great here, apparently at the end of this road is one of the best places for it.  Locals, however, are reluctant to share the tides and beach with those pesky visitors that want to surf, so they would tear down the street signs to Stent Road. They did it so many times that the local sign-putter-uppers got tired of replacing the signs and just painted the name of the road on the rock.  No more worry about signs--however, the do have to repaint the name occasionally when it gets whitewashed. 

At Waverley [also in southern Taranaki], we were greeted one day with red seaweed littering the sands.  That was so very cool to see.  It seems that it is a bit rare but it has commercial potential.  Find out more by clicking here.

For those who are keeping up with the duckling situation, the total to date is 12 broods with over 70 ducklings! A brood of 7 showed up the day after Christmas and a Mom with a lone baby appeared today.  Yes, I still think they are adorable especially now that most of the others have found somewhere else to call home but we are still going to net the pond.  I'm sure the grass won't grow half as well without duck poo everywhere, but cleaning it up....