It was a warm December day in La Azulita, Venezuela, when Sarah Penso set out on a bike ride around her hometown. Pedaling quickly down a dirt path, the competitive mountain biker was halfway through her training session when she suddenly saw a white flash at her feet.

To her surprise, a tiny puppy with blonde fur was charging at her ankles, following and barking at Penso seemingly in defense. She looked around to locate the puppy’s home, and her stomach dropped as she came to a sad realization.

“I found her far away from any house,” Penso wrote on Instagram. “If she had an owner, she wouldn’t have been so far away from a house.”

The puppy’s barks turned out to be cries for help instead of houseguarding yelps, so Penso decided to step in and save her. Sadly, her first attempt was unsuccessful.

“I tried to put her in my backpack, but I couldn’t,” Penso wrote. “But she followed me.”

Penso decided to bike back home after her first attempt failed, hoping the puppy would stay close. Sure enough, the dog, later named Neblina, chased Penso’s bike for a while before she finally obliged to being picked up and placed in a backpack.

“When I talked to her, she understood me,“ Penso wrote. “And she went with me. After 50 kilometers on my shoulders, she arrived at her new home.”

You can watch her rescue story here:

Neblina was overcome with gratitude as she stepped foot in her new house for the first time, falling instantly in love with her mom and a doting set of grandparents. After of long day of being rescued, Neblina curled up in her mom’s arms and fell asleep for the first of many cozy nights together.

“Since she’s arrived at home, she’s been very spoiled and calm,” Penso wrote in an Instagram post. “She sleeps with me and behaves like a princess.”

As the holidays came to an end, Penso faced a dilemma. She lived in Caracas, the country’s capital city, and was only visiting her parents when she found Neblina. She planned to take the dog back to Caracas with her in the new year, but she soon realized that the sweet girl thrived in her parents’ home.

“She’s super happy with her grandparents, where she has space to run around and play,” Penso wrote. “I miss her a lot, but she is happier over there in La Azulita.”

Neblina has grown since her adoption and is stronger and more energetic than ever. She’s known to get into some good trouble here and there, and her family loves her for it.

“She gets into a lot of mischief like every girl,” Penso wrote on Instagram. “She loves to steal her grandpa’s sweets and bite her grandma’s plants. But she’s the most spoiled girl in the house.”