Marathon Runner Has Tearful Reunion With Stray Dog Who Ran With Him For 22 Miles Across Gobi Desert

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A straggly mutt rose to stardom earlier this month when she took an immediate liking to Australian ultramarathon runner, Dion Leonard. The tiny dog ran with Leonard for 22 miles across the Gobi desert to keep him company.

The two quickly became inseparable. After the ordeal, the 41-year-old professional runner decided to adopt the pup and take her home to Edinburgh, Scotland. He also named her Gobi, after the place they first met.

Leonard had to leave for the UK after the racing event, and asked a friend  in Urumqi, a city in Northwest China, to keep the pup until he came back for her.

But then tragedy struck: while Leonard was away, Gobi ran away from the Chinese home. Leonard flew to China straightaway to find his missing mutt.

Her disappearance sparked a city-wide search; friends and strangers volunteered to post the pup’s photos online to spread the news, and some even went so far as to look for her on foot.

For a long time, the search was going nowhere. But then, a tip came. Someone found a small dog at the public park. They had brought her home and had even shown Leonard photos. After having had a lot of false leads, Leonard was trying not to keep his hopes up any longer.

“I needed to come and do it, just to be sure in my own mind I had done it,” Leonard said. “But realistically, I was dreading having to go back home next week without her.”

Leonard decided to check once and for all whether this dog was his Gobi. “When I got to the house where Gobi was, I walked through the lounge room door and didn’t say a word, it was so noisy in there with everyone talking, but Gobi saw me,” Leonard said.

“She must have known it was me and she came running up behind me, jumped on my leg, and jumped into my arms, and was just so excited,” he added. “She didn’t know which way to turn to be patted or hugged, it was truly amazing!”

“It was just like we were back together again at the race,” he said. “It was just mind-blowing to think that we had found her. It was a miracle.”

Leonard called it “love again at immediate sight.”

The runner’s affection for the tiny pup shines through. “She’s beaten some pretty damn good athletes,” he beams. “She has definitely got a big heart for a little dog.”

Leonard added that he never would have found Gobi if not for the support of concerned citizens in Urumqi. “This couldn’t have been achieved without the fantastic search team who worked tirelessly for the last 10 days trying to find her,” he said. “The people of Urumqi have been so supportive, assisting and allowing us to post flyers up everywhere and the whole of China has really got behind us.”

Gobi will have to undergo a further 120 days of quarantine in Beijing before being able to leave for Scotland, but Leonard plans to make frequent trips back to China to see her. “Fingers crossed she’ll be home for Christmas.”