For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been debating buying a dog after summer ends.
I make decent money and by the time this year ends, I’ll be 25. If there was ever a time to get a pupper, it’s now. I’ve got the time, I’ve got the money, but most of all, I really just miss living with a dog. And I’ll tell you, this story right here may have pushed me over the edge into Dogville because I don’t know how much longer I can go without one.
I bring you now to Stafford High School in Falmouth, Virginia, where they made the excellently self-aware decision to include a student’s service dog in the yearbook.
Alpha follows 16-year-old Andrew Schalk to Stafford High School in Falmouth and detects when the diabetic teen’s blood sugar is too high or low through his incredible sense of smell. To the school’s surprise, the yearbook team agreed to photograph the black dog, who was captured looking adorably apprehensive in the bottom half of the frame right next to his owner.
Via Buzzfeed:
Schalk told BuzzFeed News that he has Type 1 diabetes and Alpha’s job is to alert him when his blood sugar is getting too low or high.
“He has saved my life multiple times already, by waking me up in the middle of the night to extremely low blood sugars, which are very dangerous,” Schalk said. Schalk said he started bringing to Alpha to school with him last year “to get him acclimated to the school environment so he would be prepared for this year.”
“He has become a huge part of my school, coming to my classes with me, and a lot of people know about him,” Schalk said. So he spoke to the people in charge of the yearbook to see if Alpha could be included in the yearbook, and they were 100 percent supportive.
As you can tell, Alpha is a very good boy, and almost makes me wish I had diabetes just so I’d have a reason to have a dog with me at all times.
