A group of Texas cyclists flagged down by a concerned passerby on a morning ride stopped to investigate, and ended up saving a stranded dog in despair from a concrete bridge support beam, 20 feet off the ground.
Abbey Robinson, 45, had joined a spontaneous ride with six cyclists from her hometown of Fort Worth to Dallas on the morning of May 21 when the group was flagged down, 28 miles into their 77-mile round trip.
“At about 10:30 a.m., we were riding eastbound on Trinity Boulevard in an industrial part of Grand Prairie, and a woman had stopped her car on the opposite side of the road,” Abbey said. “She was trying to flag us down, pointing to the bridge, saying there was a dog stuck and couldn’t get down.”
At first, the group couldn’t spot the dog, but Abbey dismounted and started walking along the bridge. She finally found the dog’s face “peeking out” from under the concrete. Shocked to see the dog stuck there, Abbey accidentally dropped her sunglasses onto the beam.
She states that she couldn’t tell the dog’s condition from above, but assumed she must be thirsty.
“It was in the upper-90s that morning already,” Abbey recalled. “I poured a little water from my bottle onto the beam ... the look on her face was just despair. She was just quiet and still, and would shift her eyes up toward us without moving her body.”
Witnessing the dog in such a condition, the group began brainstorming what to do, as they realized she wouldn’t be able to get up or down by herself and found that the stuck canine was really scared.
That’s when fellow rider Chris Williamson hailed a van, saw a ladder in the back, and got the driver’s consent to borrow it.
With the help of the ladder, without any hesitation, Chris went down to the beam to gain the dog’s trust.
“He didn’t want to scare her more, so he took his time just sitting next to her, talking to her,” said Abbey. “He even laid down next to her without his helmet to show her he was a friend.
“Once he felt like she trusted him enough, he picked her up and held her over his head so we could reach down and cradle her to safety. We lowered the ladder back down and he climbed back up to the road.”
The dog was dirty, thirsty, and hungry, “but okay,” said Abbey, claiming it appeared she had recently had puppies. She relaxed immediately after being lifted to safety and was glued to Chris’s side thereafter.
“She absolutely knew that he rescued her and seemed really appreciative,” Abbey said.
The cyclists then called Animal Control, who scanned her for a microchip but found none. Feeling uncomfortable sending the dog to an “already overfilled” shelter, the group then placed a call to Saving Hope Rescue, who sent a dog foster to pick her up.
The group bought snacks from a convenience store and sat in the shade to wait.
They also added that the cyclists decided to name the dog Moriah Wilson, after the U.S.’s top gravel racer who was tragically murdered in Austin that weekend.
Expressing gratitude to the cyclists for their kind act and welcoming Mo to the rescue, they wrote: “[They] changed the world a little bit today.”
Abbey, a maternal/infant healthcare specialist for over 20 years, claims rescuing Mo was “just the right thing to do.” The cyclist group are grateful for the wealth of help they received that day, and say Mo is “doing great,” as they have visited her since the rescue.
“She’s been vetted and spayed, she’s still with her foster mom and has lots of dog friends to play with, and she'll be available for adoption,” said Abbey.
Abbey was looking for a new way to work out after a surgery when she fell in love with cycling. She “felt like a kid on a bike again,” and has been cycling now for about six years. She implores others to make space for groups like hers.
