Stray Dog Befriends Trekkers and Follows Them for 430 Miles
When a group of Swedish hikers fed a stray dog a treat, little did they know that he would become their new best friend as they trekked 430 miles across Ecuador in a grueling jungle endurance race.
Traversing their way through one of the world’s most extreme jungle environments, Team Peak Performance started with four team members — but finished with five.
The team first encountered Arthur when he appeared in the jungle looking in pretty bad shape. Feeling sorry for the scruffy looking pooch, team captain Mikael Lindnord offered him some food before setting off on the next phase of the race.
In the beginning, they didn’t realize that Arthur had followed them, but while they were wading through knee deep mud, to their surprise he reappeared and despite trying to send him off, he continued to show up beside the team as they made their way through the treacherous Amazon rainforest.
Image credit: Team Peak Performance
Fearing that the sickly dog was too weak to handle the difficult course, race organizers advised that the team didn’t take Arthur with them on the last leg of the race, which involved paddling 59 km in a kayak, before finally arriving at the finish line.
The team agreed that this was the best thing for Arthur, but when they put their kayaks down in the water and set off, Arthur refused to be left behind and started swimming after them.
“It was too heartbreaking and we felt we couldn’t leave him, so we picked him up. We could hear the people cheer on the shore as we set off,” recalls Lindnord.
Image credit: Team Peak Performance
Paddling with a big dog like Arthur aboard wasn’t easy, and the team had to find different paddling techniques not to kick him off board. Throughout the journey Arthur kept jumping into the water to take a swim, before crawling back into the boat, at which point he was so cold the team had to offer him their 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,” says Lindnord.
When they crossed the finish line, Arthur was right there beside them, and the thought of leaving him to return to his former life on the street was too much to bear, so they started to look into bringing him back to Sweden.
Image credit: Team Peak Performance
After a whole lot of paperwork, and a health check to approve him for the journey, officials in Sweden agreed for Arthur to enter the country, where he would finally have a forever home with his new found friends.
Now back in Sweden, Arthur is loving his new life. He is currently in quarantine, where he is receiving all the medical care he needs to treat the pre-existing wounds on his back and recover his general body condition.
In honor of Arthur, Team Peak Performance created the Arthur Foundation, to help stray dogs be valued by society and to support a new law proposal that will give stray dogs rights against violence and abuse.
