Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
On May 22, a group of Texas cyclists decided last-minute to ride from Fort Worth to Dallas and back. About 30 miles into the ride, they were stopped by a woman frantically trying to flag them down in a desolate area.
“This woman had stopped her car, and she keeps yelling, ‘There’s a dog, there’s a dog,'” cyclist Abbey Robinson told WFAA.
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They had been crossing over a bridge and paused to peer over the side. There, on one of the concrete support beams, was a pit mix of some sort, stranded in an impossible spot.
Immediately, the group knew they had to do something, and immediately, they suspected that the dog had not found her own way onto that ledge.
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“There’s no way that she could have gotten there herself, and there’s no way that she could have gotten out herself,” Robinson said. “The look on her face was despair.”
They looked around, waiting for someone to pass by that looked like they might be able to help. Lo and behold, who would pass by at that moment — and stop — but a handyman, who happened to have a ladder with him.
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Chris Williamson, another of the cyclists, took the ladder and climbed down to the terrified dog. He was quiet and calm and gave her time to adjust to him before he was able to pick her up.
“As soon as I like got over there and I grabbed a hold of her, we were golden,” Williamson said.
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“Three of us bent over the side of the rail and picked her up, cradled like a baby, and sat her down next to us,” Robinson said. “It was just relief.”
The group called animal control, who scanned the dog for a microchip but found none. With the local shelters overflowing, the cyclists opted to hang on to the pup until they could find a better situation for her.
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The dog was eventually taken in by a foster family with Saving Hope Rescue, who posted about the incident and called the cyclists heroes.
“They got off their bikes and looked down over the side of the bridge and couldn’t believe their eyes,” part of the post read.
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“There was a dog, all alone, just sitting on a concrete beam. How on earth did she get there? More importantly, how would she ever get off? The drop was too far for her to jump.”
“The cyclists decided to name her Moriah Wilson, after the US’s top gravel racer who was tragically murdered in Austin last weekend. Please welcome Moriah to the Saving Hope family. And thank you to the cyclists who stopped and changed the world a little bit today.”
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“Mo” is now nicely settled into her new foster home and shouldn’t have to find herself in such dire straits ever again — thanks to the help of some cycling enthusiasts who decided on a whim to get out and ride that day.
“Shoot! I mean it needed to be done,” Williamson said, “and who else is gonna do it if you don’t just jump in and do it?”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.