Dogs just love you. Incredibly friendly, loyal and affectionate animals, if you're good to a dog it will be your guardian, guide and best friend for its entire life. And in that sentence, there's a tragedy - in the vast majority of cases, you will outlive your canine friend. And that means being there during its final moments. A man called John Unger perhaps knows that better than any of us ever will.
John's dog Schoep is 19 years old in this picture and suffering from painful canine arthritis. Every night, John would walk out into Lake Superior carrying Schoep in his arms, going in almost to his neck, so the buoyancy of the water would relieve some of Schoep's pain and allow him to sleep peacefully. He would do this dutifully and daily because it was his only way of paying Schoep back for almost two decades of a shared life and friendship.