(Mexico City) The Australian castaway rescued by a Mexican boat after drifting for two months in the Pacific with his dog Bella, has decided to leave his faithful companion in Mexico.
Timothy Shaddock and Bella survived on raw fish and rainwater before being rescued by a Mexican tuna boat more than 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km) from any shore.
“The dog was given by Timothy to the captain of the boat that saved his life,” Antonio Guerra, director of the company that owned the tuna boat that carried out the rescue, told local media on Wednesday.
The 54-year-old Australian explained that his dog, a mixed breed with a dark coat and golden spots, was actually Mexican and he found her wandering around shortly before he left the seaside town of La Paz, Mexico.
He tried to find her a home three times, but the animal always ended up following him, so he decided to take her as a traveling companion aboard his catamaran.
“She’s an amazing animal, I’m grateful she’s alive, she’s much braver than me,” he said on Tuesday after arriving at the port of Manzanillo following his rescue.
Mr. Shaddock left in April from La Paz (northwest), on the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, for a 6,000 kilometer trip to French Polynesia. But his boat, theAloha Toabroke down after a severe storm in the eastern Pacific left both master and animal adrift, and knocked out electronic equipment.