As dog stories go, this one about a scruffy little stray named Gobi has legs for miles.
The sand-colored pooch with big, soulful eyes has a book out and movie deal after she happened on ultra-runner Dion Leonard last year during a 155-mile race across desert dunes, over mountains and through yurt villages in the remote autonomous region of Xinjiang in northwest China.
On short but powerful legs, Gobi kept pace with Leonard for nearly 80 miles in 100-plus degree heat, securing a spot in his heart forever. But their dog chooses man, man saves dog story doesn’t end there.
While the Australian human living in Scotland returned home to Edinburgh to figure out exactly how one adopts a stray dog from China and gets her into the United Kingdom, Gobi went missing from the home of a person in the race community Leonard had met during the multistage, seven-day race. The acquaintance was kind enough to temporarily shelter the dog as Leonard untangled the red tape.
Gobi’s disappearance led Leonard to hustle back to China and join a search for the dog.
Looming over the search was fear that nearly $50,000 raised for Gobi’s cause through crowdfunding, attracting media attention in the UK and China, might have created a “dognapping” scenario. About 10 days after Gobi disappeared, she was found and the two were reunited, though the dog had suffered a hip injury and a deep head gash.