LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Thousands of students walked the stage this weekend at Texas Tech University, including one on four legs.<\/p>\n
A graduate and her service dog were handed their diplomas in a now-viral moment. Makaela Muse and Sadie crossed the stage together after years of teamwork, each being rewarded for a job well done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took a moment that was going to be special anyways and made it so much more special than I ever could have imagined,\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
Muse has been with Sadie since she was only weeks old.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was honestly just supposed to be a pet originally,\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
But one day on campus, that all changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually passed out in my very first animal dissection lab, and we hadn\u2019t even gotten to the fun bits yet,\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
After years of being misdiagnosed, doctors discovered Makaela had two rare health conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, between the two of them, my hormones are always going up and down, and that\u2019s primarily her job, is to help me manage that,\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
Sadie became more than just a friend, always ready to alert Makaela to any changes in her body. As Makaela earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in animal sciences, Sadie was there every step of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s seen the good, the bad, and the ugly,\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
When Texas Tech and President Lawrence Schovenec surprised Sadie with her own diploma, the crowd loved it, and so did hundreds of thousands of people online. The moment went viral on Texas Tech\u2019s Instagram page and ESPN\u2019s TikTok. Harvard commented on Sadie\u2019s \u201cdogtorate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muse, a self-proclaimed introvert, wasn\u2019t sure how to handle the newfound fame.<\/p>\n
\u201cShock, a little bit of panic, some, what am I supposed to do now?\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s captured the attention of people across the globe, only Makaela truly knows what the moment was worth.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike you deserve it too, because she went to just about every class and lab and every late night study session. People don\u2019t understand that they are literally our lifelines,\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
As she starts applying to veterinary schools and hopes to end up back at Texas Tech, Makaela knows she won\u2019t be alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no Makaela without Sadie, we\u2019re a packaged deal at this point,\u201d Muse said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Thousands of students walked the stage this weekend at Texas Tech University, including one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[15429,7990,32281,108779,2526,18937,40605,584,37301,9828,168,170,169,108782,16959,108783,108780,108784,108781,2360,17921,6529,977,302,27,6622,512,6429,28271,1711,233],"class_list":["post-299116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-animal","tag-brittany-crittenden","tag-condition","tag-diploma","tag-dog","tag-graduate","tag-graduation","tag-health","tag-honors","tag-instagram","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-makaela","tag-moment","tag-muse","tag-now-viral","tag-pre-vet","tag-sadie","tag-school","tag-service","tag-stage","tag-student","tag-tech","tag-texas","tag-tiktok","tag-university","tag-vet","tag-veterinary","tag-viral","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}