A stray dog managed to survive a 430-mile journey through the Amazon rainforest, following an adventure race team all thanks to one meatball.
The scraggly mutt, later named Arthur, happened upon Team Peak Performance, a Swedish team competing in the Adventure Racing World Championship, right at dinnertime. The athletes were sharing a nice meal when one team member, Mikael Lindnord, felt bad for the poor dog and tossed him a meatball.
"I had just opened a food pack when I saw a scruffy miserable dog in the corner of my eye," Lindord told Swedish news site Aftonbladet. "I thought he was hungry and gave him a meatball. Then I thought no more of it."
But one meatball is all it took for Arthur to befriend the Swedish foursome. From then on he was by their side through the harrowing 20-mile race stage through rough terrain in Ecuador, becoming the fifth team member.
The strong-minded stray kept up as the team biked, hiked up muddy hillsides and kayaked down rivers. Given the grueling task, difficult even for humans, the team tried to get their newest member to scram out of concern for his safety, according to the Daily Mail, but to no avail.
Realizing he wasn't leaving their side, the team stopped for a break when Arthur got tired and pulled him out of the mud when he got stuck.
"At one stage we had to take a break and the dog was totally wrecked," Lindord told Aftonbladet. "We opened two cans of food and let him eat, because he could find no food at all in the jungle."
And watching Arthur desperately paddling alongside the team's kayak left Lindord heartbroken, he added, prompting him to scoop up the mutt and let him ride in the kayak for the rest of the 36-mile river journey.
It took six days for these four people, and one dog, to finally finish the race, all of them a little worse for wear.
Arthur was promptly brought to a veterinarian in South America to have him checked out, and given their bonding during the Adventure Racing World Championship - which covers the Andes, the Pacific and the Amazon rainforest - Lindord decided to adopt the dog and bring him back home to Sweden.
Lindord concluded, "I came to Ecuador to win the World Championship. Instead, I got a new friend."
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