Stray Dog Follows Women for Miles, Internet Obsessed With What Happens Next

Seeing a dog without a home is a heartbreaking sight but one couple decided to take matters into their own hands when a stray followed them for miles.

The street dog's persistence paid off as she has since been adopted by Maggie Jo and her partner Maeve, who were cycling through Europe at the time.

Recently, a snippet of their story went viral on TikTok (@_maggiejo_) and racked up 754,000 views. The video captioned: "Stray dog to travel buddy" shows Maggie and the dog, Monte, sleeping in a tent.

One comment said: "They say dogs find you for a reason."

"She knew you were coming, she was waiting," said another.

Maggie has also shared their journey on Instagram and previously wrote a detailed post about their first interaction with the street dog in Montenegro.

"When Monte first started following us, we thought she would eventually just get tired and stop, and we would get on with our journey," Maggie said. "But she just kept running and no matter how far she fell behind, she would always catch up when we were either climbing hills or taking a rest.

"By the second night of waking up to her right outside our tent, we started talking about the possibility of taking her with us. We knew we needed to find a vet and at least take care of her ticks and fleas. When we found out she was pregnant and would need to have surgery to get sterilized, we thought our time with her might be over."

After the procedure, Monte stayed with a foster until she was fit and well. Then she joined the couple on their European tour and traveled on the back of Maggie's bike in a crate. In another video, Maggie states they started off "nice and easy" by slowly walking around with the bike while Monte sat in her crate.

She appears to enjoy being chauffeured from the get-go and now four months on the trio are in the United States and the internet couldn't be happier for them.

Their most recent video shows the couple jumping from behind their bike boxes with Monte.

One comment said: "The most beautiful vacation love story."

Another said: "Literally crying as I watched all the monte vids, y'all were on my FYP. Glad y'all made it home safely!"

Stray dogs are a problem all over the globe and there are an estimated 100,000 dogs living on the streets of Montenegro alone, according to the European Society of Dog and Animal Welfare.

Each year 6.3 million pets are surrendered to U.S. shelters, which is an average of 17,260 a day, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The number of dogs and cats taken in by pet shelters hit an average of 46,807 per day during January 2023, an increase of 1,744 compared with January 2022, the 24Pet Shelter Watch Report found.

Around 920,000 surrendered animals are euthanized every year in the U.S. but shelters are striving to minimize euthanasia rates by promoting adoption campaigns, spaying and neutering programs, and behavior rehabilitation.

Newsweek reached out to @_maggiejo_ for comment via Instagram. We could not verify the details of the case.

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