Dion Leonard and Gobi

Dion Leonard is an Australian ultramarathon runner who lives in Edinburgh. He came

to everybody's attention recently while doing a race in China. Leonard met a stray
dog, which he decided to call Gobi, during this year's Gobi Desert Race, which is a
six-stage, seven-day, 250 km race across China's Gobi Desert. On the second day
of the race, Leonard noticed Gobi running alongside him. She would run ahead and
wait for him 20m or 30m down the road, and then he'd have to catch up with her.
Leonard even carried his new pal across a few rivers.

By the race's end, Leonard was so taken with Gobi that he decided he wanted to
take her home to Edinburgh, Scotland. However, he soon learned adopting a foreign
stray was no easy feat - Gobi's quarantine, veterinary bills and adoption proceedings
would cost over 5,000 Euros. So Leonard started Bring Gobi Home, a Crowdfunder
page seeking donations for Gobi's expenses. Turns out, the internet wanted Gobi to
get home, too. On Friday, the page had raised over 12,000 Euros - well over its
5,000 Euros target. But then bad news struck. On Aug. 15 , just before she was due
to travel to Beijing to enter quarantine, the dog disappeared, scampering out an open
door in the Chinese city of Urumqi, where she was being looked after.

Leonard flew back to China to look, launching a media and social media campaign
and putting posters up all over the city. Volunteers helped him scour Urumqi, asking
guards, taxi drivers, cleaners and fruit vendors; visiting parks and dog shelters; and
talking to anyone who might have seen the dog. But at the bottom of his heart,
Leonard feared it would be a fruitless quest. Then, on Wednesday evening, a
Chinese man called. He and his son had seen a small stray dog in a local park while
walking his own dog. They had brought her home and thought she could be the one.

He went to their house and Gobi spotted him as soon as he walked in, and started
running toward him. Literally, she was running up his leg and jumping all over him
and squealing with delight. Leonard had struggled to stay positive during his stay in
Urumqi, especially as time ran out before he had to return to Britain next
week. Leonard raised 19,700 pounds through a crowdfunding campaign to cover the
costs of bringing Gobi back to Britain. He paid tribute to everyone around the world
who had supported him, and especially to the people of Urumqi, whose response he
said had been overwhelming.

He couldn't believe how many people had been going out from 6 in the morning to
midnight trying to find her. When Gobi went missing, some media reports had
highlighted the dog meat trade in China, but as far as he is concerned, it is very
much a dog-loving city. Without the help of the locals, it would have been impossible
to find her. Gobi had to undergo 120 days of quarantine in Beijing, but he tried to
come out once or twice to visit her during that time - and then have her home with
him by Christmas.

Finally, he got her home, and she settled in very quickly. She got to know his cat -
they seemed to get on pretty well, which was good. They all slept together in the
same bed and there was no fighting, so everything was pretty good. Mr Leonard
added that he had made Gobi a promise and told her he was going to bring her to
the UK, and he was just so glad he got through the ups and down. They had to battle
through things to get there and that was the most important thing. "I wouldn't have
changed a thing other than the part where she went missing, although we could have
done without all the grief," he said.