Stray dog Arthur moves in with Swedish owners
Arthur the stray dog, whose November rescue from the streets of Ecuador by a team of Swedish athletes made global headlines, is due to arrive in his new home in northern Sweden after spending months in quarantine.
Arthur was released from a 120-day quarantine on Friday but had to undergo dental surgery before he could join his adopted family in the northern town of Örnsköldsvik on Sunday.
The stray dog first befriended 38-year-old Mikael Lindnord and his extreme sports team members in Ecuador in November after Lindnord gave him a cabbed meatball in the rainforest. The four-person team was in Ecuador to take part in the Adventure Racing World Championship.
At times the team – known as Team Peak Performance – tried to get rid of their new member because they were worried about his safety, but Arthur refused to leave their sides. And the love was mutual.
“Mikael called home and said he wanted to bring the dog with him, so I said; in that case that’s what we’ll do,” Lindnord’s wife Helena told news agency TT.
Lindnord brought the homeless animal back home to Sweden later that month, with permission from the Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket).
The homeless animal became something of a celebrity in Sweden and even developed an international fan club, with news outlets including the BBC, USA Today, The Daily Mail and the Washington Post all reporting on the story last year.
And in Arthur's honour the team even launched Arthur’s Foundation, a charity which campaigns for a change to the law in Ecuador to give more rights to wild dogs.
His family has even had to hire a press secretary for Arthur to sift through the massive wave of media enquiries about the dog.
On Sunday, seven-year-old Arthur will be greeted by crowds of photographers and journalists both before he gets on the flight in Stockholm and after he lands in Örnsköldsvik.
Comments
See Also
Arthur was released from a 120-day quarantine on Friday but had to undergo dental surgery before he could join his adopted family in the northern town of Örnsköldsvik on Sunday.
The stray dog first befriended 38-year-old Mikael Lindnord and his extreme sports team members in Ecuador in November after Lindnord gave him a cabbed meatball in the rainforest. The four-person team was in Ecuador to take part in the Adventure Racing World Championship.
At times the team – known as Team Peak Performance – tried to get rid of their new member because they were worried about his safety, but Arthur refused to leave their sides. And the love was mutual.
“Mikael called home and said he wanted to bring the dog with him, so I said; in that case that’s what we’ll do,” Lindnord’s wife Helena told news agency TT.
Lindnord brought the homeless animal back home to Sweden later that month, with permission from the Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket).
The homeless animal became something of a celebrity in Sweden and even developed an international fan club, with news outlets including the BBC, USA Today, The Daily Mail and the Washington Post all reporting on the story last year.
And in Arthur's honour the team even launched Arthur’s Foundation, a charity which campaigns for a change to the law in Ecuador to give more rights to wild dogs.
His family has even had to hire a press secretary for Arthur to sift through the massive wave of media enquiries about the dog.
On Sunday, seven-year-old Arthur will be greeted by crowds of photographers and journalists both before he gets on the flight in Stockholm and after he lands in Örnsköldsvik.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.