All of Twitter, Facebook and Weibo was rooting for little dog Gobi in the summer of 2016. Australian marathon runner Dion Leonard met the stray dog at the start of the Gobi March, a 250-kilometer event across the Gobi Desert in China.
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The stray dog joined the runner on his run after he hung around the runners’ camp on the first day of the march. The two became inseparable after running for days on end together. The love grew so big that Leonard decided to set up a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs for bringing the dog he named Gobi back with him to Scotland, where Leonard resides.
But during the first period of quarantine in the city of Urumqi, Gobi unexpectedly run away and went missing. Leonard did not hesitate and flew to China to look for his friend.
The search started on August 15 and continued for nine days, with chances and hopes of finding Gobi growing smaller every day. Leonard and his helpers pushed through, spread flyers everywhere and asked the help of Weibo netizens, who also shared the news about the missing dog.
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The hashtag #FindingGobi was shared among netizens all across the world, as everyone anxiously waited for some good news about the little dog. On August 24, Dion finally announced that Gobi had been found. She was spotted in a local park by a man and his son who recognized Gobi from the flyers. They brought her home and contacted Leonard, who came over and was finally reunited with Gobi, who seemed equally elated to see him.
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Leonard announced today that the story of him and Gobi will now be turned into a book published through the Harper Collins Global Publishing Program. The book is to be released in 2017 in English, Spanish, Japanese and Dutch.
In addition to the regular book, there will be additional products including a young adult edition and a children’s board book.
The book, that will be simply titled Finding Gobi, is scheduled to be released in June 2017 in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Australia, United Kingdom, Holland, Japan, and Spain.
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As for Gobi, she is now still in China together with Dion Leonard awaiting to finish quarantine so she can start her new life and another adventure in the UK before Christmas.
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Recent picture of Gobi from the Bring Gobi Home Facebook Page.
– By Manya Koetse
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