Dog rescued by cyclist in Georgia finds forever home with woman in Maine

Maine resident Andrea Shaw was in Columbus on business when she spotted the puppy and knew she was going to take him home. (Andrea Shaw)

Jarrett Little was out on a ride with his group of mountain bikers in Columbus, Ga., when they spotted an emaciated and wounded puppy approaching them.

“At first, I thought it was a fox,” cyclist Chris Dixon said to the Ledger-Enquirer. “Then this dog started running across the road toward us. He looked terrible. He was hungry. He was in bad shape, but he seemed happy to see us.”

“[He] had a lot of road rash and a broken leg,” Little told CBS News.

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The bicyclists gave food and water to the starving 5-month-old Great Dane mix before loading him up on Little’s back and biking him the 7-miles back to town.

“Right when we returned to my local bike shop to get him some more water and food, we instantly ran into Mrs. Andrea who was in town from Maine,” Little said to Ledger-Enquirer.

Maine resident Andrea Shaw was in Columbus on business when she ran into Little and the puppy.

“She walked by the instant we pulled up,” Little said to the Ledger-Enquirer. “Had I been 5 minutes later or 5 minutes earlier they might now have crossed paths.”

Shaw said the puppy walked up to her and she hugged the dog and realized he had bled on her new shirt. That was when she made her decision.

The pup was biked 7 miles back into town. (Andrea Shaw)

Shaw told Ledger-Enquirer she called her husband and said, “I’m saving this dog — he’s bleeding and broken and I’m not leaving him.” Her husband, Joel, replied, “OK. Is your hotel pet-friendly?”

Shaw, a corporate attorney, paid for the pup to have his leg repaired with surgery and then found Grateful Doggies, an organization that moves rescue dogs up and down the East Coast, to transport the pup up to her horse farm in Maine.

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According to Little, the meeting was serendipitous.

“He saw her and he knew,” Little said. “He ran right up to her. This is where I am supposed to be going. It stopped her in her tracks. She was like, ‘He is broken and bleeding, and I have to keep him.’”

Shaw was able to get the pup safely up to Maine, where he is living with two other rescue dogs, horses and a family happy to have him.

“We named him Columbo, for obvious reasons,” Shaw said to the Ledger-Enquirer. “We’re going to call him Bo.”

Shaw also started a Facebook page, The Adventures of Columbo, where the cute pooch is quickly becoming a local celebrity.