Cyclist gives injured stray dog piggyback to vet
A badly injured stray dog has been given a piggyback to a vet by a cyclist before his rescuer also found him a new home.
Jarrett Little and his group of mountain bikers were enjoying a day of riding in the woods near Columbus, Georgia, earlier this month when they spotted the dog approaching them.
According to Mr Little, the dog, now known as Columbo, was incredibly thin and looked like he had been hit by a car.
“He had a lot of road rash and a broken leg,” he told CBS News.
The cyclists shared some food and water with the emaciated dog and discussed how to get Columbo to a shelter or a vet.
Since they didn’t have a car and they didn’t want to leave the injured dog, Mr Little lifted the pup onto to his back and started to ride his bike into town, 12km away.
Once Mr Little and Columbo arrived in town, they met a woman, Andrea Shaw, who was on a business trip.
“Right when we returned to my local bike shop to get him some more water and food, we instantly ran into Ms Andrea who was in town from Maine,” he said.
According to Ms Shaw, after the dog bled on her new shirt, she called her husband to let him know she planned to take him to the vet and subsequently adopt him.
“She paid for him to have his leg repaired with surgery and found an organisation that could help get him back to Maine to live on her horse farm,” Mr Little said.
He believes that the whole experience was serendipitous — from the moment they stopped and saw the dog, to the chance meeting of running into Shaw just at the right time.
“Had I been five minutes earlier or five minutes later, we wouldn’t have crossed paths with her,” he said.
Columbo, or Bo for short, made it safely to Maine, where he shares Shaw’s farm with two other dogs and her horses as well as Shaw’s family including her young son, Chris.
Ms Shaw now documents Columbo’s adventures on his own personal Facebook page, including regular updates on his progress recovering from his broken leg.
