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| Photograph by Hannah Stonehouse-Hudson |
These two articles have been borrowed from the In Good Hands Magazine Vol. 12 Issue 10
If readers would like to receive the In Good Hands Newsletter, with great articles about life and health, they are invited to go to http://www.ingoodhandsletter.com/ and use this doctor code: 33012SCHME.
John Unger Gives His 19 Year Old Arthritic Dog The Best Gift Of All… Love
If you are a dog
lover, here’s a silly question... If your dog was in pain, what would you be
willing to do to take away that pain? The answer (of course) is ANYTHING. You
would do anything it takes to make your loving pet feel good. That’s why it was
no surprise that this story went viral on the internet. The post about it on
Facebook got over 207,000 likes and 116,000 shares almost instantly.
The story is
about a Wisconsin man, John Unger, and his
dog, Schoep. John rescued Schoep 19 years ago when he was only 8 months old.
They instantly became best friends and went through almost two decades of ups
and downs together.
In his old age,
Schoep has become riddled with arthritis. It is so bad that he has a very hard
time sleeping. John discovered that Schoep feels better in water, so he takes
him into Lake Superior at night and holds
Schoep up while he sleeps.
A photographer,
Hannah Stonehouse-Hudson, is John’s friend and captured one of the “Schoep
sleeping moments” with an incredible picture. In the picture, Schoep is out
cold with his head resting on his owner’s chest. Partially submerged, the warm
lake water soothes Schoep’s aches and pains enough so he can rest peacefully.
It is a picture
of polar opposites; both heartbreaking and wonderful all at the same time. It’s
heartbreaking to see Schoep in the final stages of his life, and wonderful to
see such an incredible loving bond between a man and his dog. Because Schoep
trusts John enough to fall asleep while his owner holds him up in the lake, you
instantly know the love that was given during all those years to create that
trust.
John Unger is
reported as saying that he will do whatever he has to do to give Schoep relief
from pain. He credits Schoep with saving his life 19 years ago when a
relationship failed.
According to an
interview with John Unger in the Huffington
Post, after breaking up with his former fiancée, Unger had been having
suicidal thoughts. “To be honest with you, I don’t think I’d be here if I
didn’t have Schoep with me (that night)… He just snapped me out of it. I don’t
know how to explain it. He just snapped me out of it… I just want to do
whatever I can for this dog because he basically saved my [behind].”
Every night,
John carries his dog into the waters of Lake Superior
and holds him up while he sleeps. Yes, he stands in the lake water while his
dog sleeps every single night.
Photographer
Hannah Stonehouse-Hudson said, “I want people to identify with this photo, and remember a
time when they felt safe, loved, and cared for… Then I want them to channel
those feelings and pay it forward! There is way too much negativity in this
world – maybe with this one photo we can start to change things just a tiny
bit.”
We just “paid it
forward.” You should, too.
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| Haley Joel Osment as Trevor McKinney in the movie Pay It Forward |
PAY IT FORWARD…
Have you seen
the movie Pay It Forward? If you haven’t,
you probably should. Let me give you a very good reason why...In the movie, a
little kid teaches the adults a very big lesson via a concept he calls “pay it
forward.”
“Pay it forward”
is used to describe the concept of asking that a good deed be repaid by
performing one for someone else. In other words,
if I did a good deed for you, you would not do a good deed for me in return.
Instead, you would find someone else and do a good deed for them.
This concept is
not new, the movie just made it popular. In fact, Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote about this concept in his essay, Compensation back in 1841: “In the order of nature, we cannot
render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the
benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent
for cent, to somebody.” In 1916, Lily
Hammond wrote, “You don’t pay love back; you pay it forward.”
The list goes
on...So, here’s our
request to you: If you have gotten anything of value from visiting our office,
we would like you to pay it forward. In other words,
if you have gotten pain relief… or good advice about health… or friendship… or
anything at all… go do something good for someone else.
It doesn’t have
to be a big thing. It just has to be something. You never know how much of an
impact just being nice to someone can have on their life. It can make all
the difference in the world to that person.
So please, pay
it forward.
Andrew Schmer, D. C. is the
director of Hialeah
Wellness & Rehab Center Cleveland Chiropractic
College in Kansas City
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