Student's service dog gets his own photo in Virginia high school yearbook

Stafford High School students in Stafford, Virgina saw a small surprise when they opened their yearbooks: Alpha, a service dog, received his own photo.

Stafford junior Andrew "AJ" Schalk is Alpha's owner; he has Type 1 Diabetes and the pup can alert him if his blood sugar is too high or low.

Alpha's yearbook photo went viral when a fellow student, Diana Bloom, shared it on Twitter:

"Seeing a picture of a dog caught my eye pretty quickly," she told BuzzFeed News. "I thought it was so cute, and I knew that some of my underclassmen friends hadn't seen it yet because they didn't have their yearbooks so I took a picture and tweeted it."

Schalk told BuzzFeed that Alpha has saved his life multiple times. He's been accompanying AJ to school since last year and has been popular among the school community. Alpha even has his own school ID:

Credit: Andrew Schalk/BuzzFeed

Schalk took Alpha along when getting his photo taken and the school was supportive about including him in the yearbook. "The only thing they changed was the camera height," he told BuzzFeed. "They just had to lower it a little."

Alpha's presence has improved Schalk's life. He said, "He makes a disability, such as my diabetes, such a positive experience for me and my life overall, and really turns it into a blessing rather than a negative part of my life."

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