This adorable terrier-looking pup was hanging around a group of cyclists when they took a break, so one of them gave her chicken. Well, you know what happens when you give a dog chicken: She never leaves your side again, even if you’re riding your bike from China to Tibet, covering nearly 40 miles a day and climbing 16,000-foot mountains. The dog, nicknamed Xiaosa, had no choice but to run alongside the bikes for more than 1,000 miles. Because love. And also chicken.

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Intrepid Xiaosa followed — or, in many cases, led — the pack of bikes for the next 20 days, climbing 12 mountains and handling whatever crummy weather China dished out. Of the 300 people making the trip, 297 dropped out and resorted to buses or hitchhiking to finish the route. Only four made it the entire way — three cyclists and Xiaosa. (Although to be fair, she caught some rides — on downhills, when the bikes were going too fast for her to keep up.)

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The bikers were so impressed with the tough, speedy dog that one of them is adopting her (the one who originally gave her a chicken drumstick, fittingly). He’s taking her back to China with him — but this time, she’s going by air.