Cyclist found injured puppy and pedaled with him on his back to safety

One injured puppy got a second chance at life thanks to some quick-thinking cyclists. After being discovered on the side of the road, Columbo, a 5-month-old Great Dane mix, got a special ride on one man’s back while he rode a bicycle.

Earlier this month, a group of cyclists were riding outside Columbus, Georgia when they found Columbo on the side of the street. The puppy appeared to have been hit by a car, and he had a broken hind leg, a broken toe on his front paw and road rash. The cyclists were determined to save Columbo and get him medical treatment.

“At first, I thought [the puppy] was a fox,” Chris Dixon, one of the cyclists who first spotted Columbo, told 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.”

Immediately Dixon fed the malnourished puppy some energy chews that he has on hand for riding, which the hungry animal gobbled up.

Fellow cyclist Jarrett Little said that once they won the dog’s trust, they knew they had to bring him to safety.

“We couldn’t leave him,” Little told Ledger-Enquirer. “Out there where he was … he was going to end up alligator food. In my head, it was, ‘We’re saving you from that now, we will figure out the rest later.’”

After a failed attempt by Dixon to transport the pup on his bike’s handlebars, Little decided to give Colombo a piggyback ride for the seven miles back into town — much how he has carried his young daughter on his shoulders.

Check out the adorable photo of Colombo getting a ride that was posted to Facebook:

Columbo managed to hang on through the nearly 30-minute bike ride, and when they rejoined the group of more than 200 cyclists that had been on the organized ride, the puppy instantly found his forever home.

He immediately took to Andrea Shaw, an attorney from Maine who was in town on business. Here’s Columbo and Shaw bonding:

Shaw got his injuries treated, including surgery that put four pins into his leg. Then Grateful Doggies, an organization that transports rescue dogs, helped Columbo make the journey north to his new family’s horse farm in Maine.

His family started a Facebook page, Adventures of Columbo, so that his many fans can keep up with him. Here he is enjoying a little sunshine in his new yard:

We’re so glad this story has a happy ending!