A dog named Sausage of the Irkutsk bike traveler Daniil Tolstikov became a nominee for the international award “My Tender and Necessary Animal,” the organization’s press service reports. The pet was nominated in the “Our Brothers” category.
Daniil Tolstikov picked up the sausage in Kazakhstan during a bicycle trip across the country.
The traveler started on May 1 from Irkutsk. In the middle of his journey in Kazakhstan, an Irkutsk resident met a stray dog, treated it to sausage, after which it ran after him 10 kilometers along the highway. Later it turned out that before the big trip, Sausage lived on the highway in the village of Sarykol, and was fed by gas station employees.
“This dog saved me in every sense. If it weren’t for Sausage, I wouldn’t have completed my journey; it’s very difficult emotionally to travel alone, to be honest. And she helped me out, you can talk to her, hug her. She woke me up more than once and drove away stray dogs at night. And once we fought off a pack of badgers at night. In the hail, in the rain, and in the abnormal heat, she was with me, she never ran away, she endured everything very stoically. This is a real friend,” said Daniil Tolstikov in an interview with Dobro. Press”.
On September 10, Daniil and Sausage finished in the northern capital near the Kazan Cathedral. In total, the traveler spent 133 days on the road, cycled 8,100 km, crossed 13 regions and visited 60 cities. After the finish, the traveler took the dog home to Irkutsk.
REFERENCE
The international award “My Affectionate and Necessary Animal” selects animals that have committed actions that have caused a wide public response in the media. The winners are determined by the members of the organizing committee during the monitoring of applications. They are accepted until January 2026 on the project website. Audience voting will take place in January-February, after which the winners will be announced.
