Stray Dog Runs 80 Miles Through Desert and Finds a Forever Home

A little stray dog earned herself a home thousands of miles away by chasing after a man in the Gobi desert. This amazing adoption story began when the British ultrarunner Dion Leonard participated in a gruelling 155-mile (250 km) race known as the 4 Deserts Race.

The race took place in China’s Gobi desert. As he was running, he was joined by a small terrier. The dog refused to leave his side through the week-long race, even as temperatures soared as high as 125 Fahrenheit (52 C)!

Leonard first noticed the dog when she showed up as the racers were running over the Tian Shan Mountains. The dog took an instant liking to Leonard. She was nicknamed “Gobi” and quickly became a fixture around camp. She followed Leonard into his tent and refused to sleep anywhere else.

“Once we had begun the stage, Gobi seemed to like the bright yellow colour of my gaiters and proceeded to run next to me,” Leonard recounted to 4 Deserts. “When she came into camp she followed me straight into my tent, laid down next to me, and that was that—a bond had been developed.”

i don’t know why she chose me,” he said. But, for him, it was his “miracle moment.”

Leonard recounts how that bond went even further as the race progressed to the point he decided that no matter what, he was going to bring Gobi home!

Leonard has written two books about his little miracle, Finding Gobi and Gobi: A Little Dog with a Big Heart