Students enrolled in a high school in Virginia received a pleasant surprise when they opened their yearbooks this year.
Andrew Schalk, a junior, appeared alongside a photo of his service dog, Alpha, in Stafford High School’s 2017 school yearbook, the New York Daily News reported.
Alpha helps Schalk, who has Type 1 diabetes, control his blood sugar levels.
“Alpha’s job is to alert me to my blood sugar through smell 20 to 40 minutes sooner than I know anything is wrong,” Schalk said. “He is a huge help in controlling my blood sugar levels.”
Alpha started going to classes with Schalk a year-and-a-half ago and has become a hit among Schalk’s friends. He even got a school ID for Alpha, WTVR reported.
“Everyone loves him and it has been fantastic,” Schalk said. “Everyone in class and in the hallways knows who he is, and it really brightens everybody’s day.”
Schalk pitched the idea of including Alpha in Stafford High School’s yearbook to the yearbook staff, and they were “100 percent behind it.”
Students also loved the idea so much that they posted photos of the dog’s yearbook photo on Twitter, where it became a viral sensation.
“Seeing a picture of a dog caught my eye pretty quickly,” Diana Bloom told BuzzFeed News after she tweeted a photo of the yearbook page that went viral. “I thought it was so cute.”
Bloom’s tweet has been shared more than 8,000 times.
Alpha will remain Schalk’s faithful friend even after he leaves high school.
“He will be with me whatever step I decide to take after high school and he will be there until he retires,” Schalk said.