One Meatball, One Loyal Stray And A Gruelling 99KM Journey Into The Amazon
In a story tailor-made for one of those heartwarming blockbuster that comes out once in a blue moon, a stray dog voluntarily joined a team of extreme athletes throughout their gruelling and tough adventure competition in the Amazon rainforest.
By Sadho Ram — 27 Nov 2014, 03:33 AM — Updated almost 10 years ago
It all started when Mikael Lindnord, the captain of the Swedish Peak Performance Team, shared a meatball with a stray dog, that was staring at him out of the corner of his eye, while preparing to embark on a gruelling 40 km jungle trek during the final stages of the Adventure Racing World Championship in Ecuador
After feeding him a meatball, they sent him on his way, but what happened a few kilometers into the trek took them by surprise when they realised that the stray dog, who didn't want to leave, was following them. It was an extremely strenuous hike through knee-high mud, but he simply refused to leave the team's side
The team then named him Arthur, meaning 'courageous'
There were several times that they had to pull him out of the mud and as Mikael explains, “At one stage we had to take a break and the dog was totally wrecked. We opened two cans of food and let him eat, because he could find no food at all in the jungle.”
And when the team arrived at the next transition point, Simon Niemi, one of the four teammates, was severely dehydrated and needed to receive medical attention. Arthur, without flinching a bit, loyally stood guard and waited for the team to recover.
As the team prepared to embark on the final section of the race, a 59 km coastal kayak, race organisers warned against taking Arthur as it would be difficult and dangerous. The team respected this and started off, leaving Arthur on shore. However, refusing to be left behind, he started swimming after the team.
This was too heartbreaking to witness for Mikael, the captain of the team, so he quickly helped Arthur into the kayak, to the cheers and applause from the bystanders on shore
Mikael explains that having Arthur along was fun, but not exactly easy. “He was kind of in the way during the whole paddle and we had to find different paddling techniques to not kick him off board. A few times he jumped into the water and took a swim, and then he crawled back up again and was freezing so he got to wear our jackets.”
“One time we got quite close to land and he jumped off and swam to the shore, and we thought that was the last we were gonna see from him. But he ran on the road for a bit and then he swam back to us.”
And eventually, after racing for 6 days they crossed the finish line with 5 members instead of 4 as the 12th top team in the world. While they finished 12th, as Mikael put it: "I came to Ecuador to win the World Championship. Instead, I got a new friend."
The entire journey came to a beautiful end when Mikael, who had picked Arthur up and let him stay in the kayak, adopted him
In a Facebook post Lindord wrote that he “almost cried in front of the computer, when receiving the decision [to allow him to adopt] from Jordbruksverket [the Board of Agriculture] in Sweden.” Arthur had a wound on his back that was bleeding when the team found him; it’s now being treated.
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