Dog’s
Best Friend
By Andy SimmonsJarrett Little tried a few ways of carrying
Columbo. This proved the easiest.Jarrett little was road testing his
mountain bike outside of Columbus,
Georgia, when his riding partner,
Chris Dixon, stopped suddenly. Some-
thing in the distance moving among
the trees had caught her attention. It
turned out to be a sandy-colored five-
month-old Great Dane mix.
“He was really thin, ribs showing,
and had a lot of road rash and a bro-
ken leg,” Little told CBS News. The
cyclists fed the friendly pup and
shared their water. They also quickly
realized that the dog was coming with
them, although they had no idea how.
They were more than seven miles
from downtown and riding bikes.
“We couldn’t leave him,” Little told the
Ledger-Enquirer. “Out there next to the
Oxbow Meadows, he was going to end
up as alligator food.”
Little, a 31-year-old brick and con-
crete business owner, had an idea. He
carefully picked up his new friend and
slipped the 38-pound dog’s hind legs
into the back pockets of his cycling
jersey. Then he draped the dog’s front
paws over his shoulders.
“He was injured, so he wasn’t try-
ing to fight,” Little says. “He was alsohappy that we were there, touching
him, and hadn’t taken off on him.”
The trio’s 30-minute ride into town
ended at a bike store, where they got
more water and food for the dog. That
was when Andrea Shaw, a corporate
attorney from Maine in town on busi-
ness, happened by. The dog made a
beeline for her, licking and “loving on
her,” says Dixon. Shaw was smitten
and, after learning what had trans-
pired, declared her intentions: “I am
keeping this dog.”
Shaw called him Columbo after the
town where they’d met and sched-
uled an operation on his leg. Today,
Columbo is living the high life on
a farm with a horse, a pony, a six-
year-old boy, and two coonhounds to
keep him company. As Dixon told the
Ledger-Enquirer, “He is literally the
luckiest dog alive.”NOTE: Ads were removed from this edition. Please continue to page 18.Reader’s Digest Everyday Heroes
14 dec 2018 )jan 2019 | rd.com
courtesy jarrett little