Athlete Adopts the Stray Dog Who Ran 80 Miles of an 155 Mile Race With Him in China

When athlete Dion Leonard was running a 155 mile race in China, he noticed that a small dog was doing her best to keep up with him and keep him company. When he retired to his tent at night, the dog would cuddle up with him.

I would just look down and see Gobi running beside me, tail wagging, tongue hanging out like a big smile on her face. We would sleep in tents at night time. She would often come back into the tent and I could feel her sleeping next to me and I’d usually wake up with her right in my arms.

Leonard named her Gobi and decided there and then that he would adopt her, but he couldn’t travel with her until she had a vet exam. A friend said that she would take the dog to the vet and send her to him. He returned to his home without her. Unfortunately, the dog got lost, so Leonard returned to China and set out searching for her. Luckily, she was found by a man and his son after several weeks.

We search and search for days and that leads into weeks. And then we receive a phone call one day from a man and his son who’d been walking through a park when they noticed a little dog following them that looked like the dog in the posters …They take the dog home. They ring … I race around to their house and I walk in and there she is. As soon as she sees me she comes running towards me jumps up in my arms starts licking my face.

Now Gobi lives with Leonard, his wife Lucja and a cat named Lara in Edinburgh, Scotland and travels the world with them. Leonard said that he learned something very important about himself during that race.

I’m there to do trying to win the race. I look at her and she’s staring at me with this love in her eyes and I realized there was more to winning and this dog and I were really meant to be together. I’m going to look after this dog for the rest of my life.