Dogs are the most loyal companions humans can have, that is why they make a great teammates. Besides their loyalty, this heartwarming story is the best example of how much dogs can be grateful to people who show them a little of kindness and love.
Peak performance is a Swedish extreme racing team that took the challenge to compete in the Adventure Racing World Championship. The athletes have to compete in a 430-mile-race through Ecuador. Peak performance stopped to take a well deserved break after a long walk. They knew that there is a possibility for any wild animals to appear since they were in the middle of the rain forest. But they never expected, the animal could be a stray, hungry dog who they tenderly named Arthur.
Arthur with his hungry wide open eyes kept watching the team as they were unwrapping their food. The food was needed for them to consume since they were in the middle of the race and getting food in the jungle is pretty hard. However, team captain Mikael Lindlord offered Arthur a meatball.
What comes later is the most inspiring dog story I have ever heard about. Dogs deserve all our attention and love, they are loyal, grateful and also protective. You will understand why I’m saying this after scrolling down and reading the whole story.
Arthur was struggling alone to survive in the harsh rain forest. When he met the team, he was dirty, malnourished and weak after months without food.
This small act of kindness created a strong bond between Arthur and his new “pack”.
Mikael Lindnord says on the team website, “It all started with me giving Arthur a meatball when we we’re eating right before the long trekking. When we set off we did it with some other teams, and I didn’t understand that Arthur was following us until we were alone and he was still there. 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 [sic].”
The brave dog followed the team through over 400 miles of ruthless elements. At one stage, the team was told that they going to have to leave Arthur behind..
When the team arrived to a river, they had to cross it using a kayak. The organizers informed the team that due to the bad condition Arthur was in, he is not able to cross the river with them.
They sadly left Arthur ashore, but this incredibly strong dog wouldn’t leave his “pack”, he jumped into the water and kept paddling along the team’s kayake.
The team couldn’t stand letting him swim since the water was freezing, so they pulled him into the kayake.
Lindlord recalled Arthur’s bravery:”We could hear the people cheer on the shore as we set off. But he was kind of in the way during the whole paddle and we had to find different paddling tecniques [sic] 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.”
At first chance, they took Arthur To The vet for medical check. Arthur was suffering from a 6-month-old serious wound on the back of his neck. But Arthur persisted and wasn’t going to leave his newfound pack.
Arthur stood by his team’s side and never left them, even his healthier teammates were losing energy because of the race’s hard conditions.
Arthur is now officially a member of Peak Performance team, they gathered money to send him to Sweden for medical care.
The brave dog was greeted with a hero’s welcome. More than this: he finally found a well deserved home with his pal Mikael Lindnord.
Talk about stray-to-worldwide story. Who would think that a single small meatball could change the life of these incredible people and this courageous dog?
Arthur’s story deserves to be Liked Video, Kindly do it with everyone you know!
