Leonard, an Australian-born ultramarathoner, first met Gobi in June when he was racing in the 4 Deserts ultramarathon in the Gobi desert.
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Gobi is now refusing to leave her master’s side.
Race organisers ended up taking Gobi to the finish line of the stages she could not complete, where Leonard said she would wait for him to finish. That project has already reached its goal and then some, raising £19,710.
However, as he made plans to have Gobi go through the quarantine process, he learned she had escaped her temporary home.
Dion showed it was more than just puppy love for him and the stray when he mounted a huge search effort to trace Gobi earlier this week. The search team grew from two people to more than 10 searching in streets.
Leonard told the BBC’s Phil Williams that he 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 recalled that at one point, he was forced to carry Gobi across a stretch of river as it was too wide for her. Articles about finding Gobi were published by media outlets around the world.
But, given the dog’s newfound internet stardom, it was soon spotted and reunited with Leonard, the BBC reported. Phoenix media even launched a live blog to update people about the search.
Miraculously, all that hard work has paid off.
But last week, Leonard got word that Gobi had disappeared. Sticks to him like glue!
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.
Lu received a message Wednesday evening, in which a father and son claimed they had found a dog close to their home which was nearly identical to the one on the poster.
After going on a few false alarm visits, Leonard fully expected the latest sighting to be wrong as well. The man had sent pictures but the lighting wasn’t good.
“I remembered seeing her on the reward posters, so I took her home and called the contact number”, Ma said.
“I am very heartbroken and saddened about it”, he said. “Literally she was running up my leg, and jumping all over me, and squealing with delight”. “It was a miracle”.
Leonard also said that he’ll donate the raised funds to dog charities and rescue centres if he can’t find Gobi.
After that terrifying episode, it seems that everything is back on track.
Over the space of a week, the dog raced through four of the six stages in the race. Gobi is expected to fly home to Scotland in December, sometime before Christmas.
So far, there’s been no explanation of how and where Gobi was found.
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“It was love again at immediate sight so it was just an incredible feeling and I’m just so grateful for all the help that’s been put into finding her over here”.
