These Explorers Rescued A Puppy In The Desert, Made Him Their Road Trip Mascot PLUS Got Him Adopted!

Cedar Wright and his expedition partner, Alex Honnold, love going on adventures. Soon after their expedition dubbed “Sufferfest,” where they climbed California’s fifteen tallest peaks, they set out on Sufferfest 2. This time they planned on biking nearly 800 miles and climbing 45 of the most iconic towers in the American Southwest in just three weeks.

During their expedition, they had to make a pit-stop that turned out to be unlike any other pit-stop they’ve had before.

“I have to pee so I just stop on my bike randomly in the desert and all of a sudden I hear this whimpering sound and at first I can’t figure out what it is and then I look and there’s this little puppy curled up on an old tire hiding from the wind,” Wright told National Geographic. “I quickly realized that he had been abandoned.”

They took the puppy in and named him Sufferpup after their expedition. They quickly gave him some water and string cheese, one of the only foods they had that was suitable for the pup. They also made the pup a little house out of a box and rags.

“He became our little buddy, he became our mascot for the Sufferfest,” Wright said. “For me, it was like ‘thank goodness for Sufferpup,’ because when you’re just pushing yourself to your absolute limit, biking further than you want to, climbing more than you really want to, it’s really heartening at the end of the day to come down and have this adorable little puppy to cuddle with. Without Sufferpup I don’t know if we would have made it.”

Without the two explorers, Sufferpup probably wouldn’t have made it either.

“He went from being this shivering close to death creature to being filled with energy and his coat started to look all rich and he really became this happy little puppy,” Wright said.

Once they got home from their expedition, their friends in Boulder, Colorado adopted Sufferpup. What a happy ending for this sweet puppy!