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Gobi the dog. Image credits: @findinggobi/Instagram
Dion Leonard at the 2013 Kalahari Extreme 250km desert race in South Africa. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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In June 2016, during the Gobi March, a 155-mile self-supported ultramarathon through China’s Gobi Desert , where daytime temperatures reached roughly 125 degrees Fahrenheit, a small stray dog began following one of the competitors. The dog first approached runner Dion Leonard by chewing on his shoes and socks, then started running alongside him. Gobi, as the dog would come to be called, ran with Leonard for 77 miles of the race, a little under half its total distance. She kept up through river crossings and a mountain range crossing, though race organizers drove her past two stages that entered a stretch of desert where temperatures exceeded 126°F, before she rejoined Leonard on foot for the final stage.Gobi is generally described as a small border terrier mix (Wikipedia’s entry calls her a Chihuahua mix, but multiple contemporaneous reports including ESPN and CGTN, describe her as a scrappy border terrier mix, which better fits an unchipped desert stray capable of covering dozens of miles over rough terrain).Ultramarathoning is a very self-sufficient sport. There’s no pacing, no team support, just your own supply of food and water, and a willingness to push through your own mental barriers. Gobi knew nothing of pacing; she just curled up to sleep in Leonard’s tent with him at night, and ate alongside him during the day. For the days that Leonard could not run, Gobi apparently waited for him at the various finish lines along the race route. According to the BBC article, Leonard finished the race in second place; Gobi, popular with the other competitors, was given an honorary medal of her own.There is some neurological research on how dogs bond with people. According to a 2015 research paper titled “Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds,” by Nagasawa et al., published in the journal Science, mutual gaze between dogs and their humans causes an increase in oxytocin in both, which is the same hormone associated with bonding between parents and infants. Interestingly enough, this doesn’t happen with hand-raised wolves and their caretakers, implying that dogs specifically have this unique ability to bond with their human companions.Separately, a study by Topál et al. in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, using an adaptation of Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation” test, found that dogs show attachment behavior toward their owners similar to that of human infants toward their mothers. Taken together, this research suggests Gobi’s fixation on Leonard reflects a broader, well-documented pattern in canine behavior: a dog seeking out a person to bond with and follow.Before Gobi could complete the quarantine required to enter the UK, she went missing from the care of race organizers in Urumqi, China. Leonard flew back and, with a search party and reward posters, eventually found her about ten days later; she had a hip injury and a head wound but recovered. Leonard and his wife, Lucja, brought her home to Edinburgh in January 2017 after she completed quarantine in Beijing.A crowdfunding campaign to cover Gobi’s flights, medical care, and quarantine, launched with a £5,000 goal, ultimately raised more than £38,000, and Leonard and Lucja donated the surplus to stray-dog welfare organizations, including a Beijing rescue group that helped in the search.This is, without a doubt, a heartwarming tale. However, it’s hard to look past the spectacle of it all. Gobi is a lovable little stray, and that is a genuinely admirable thing. But it’s also a sad commentary on the pet adoption industry, in which pets who could be easily placed in new homes are euthanized by shelters every single day. This story has seen its fair share of coverage, and it’s easy to assume that Gobi is one of those pets who somehow got away.At the same time, Gobi’s fame has been leveraged to good use; the excess money has been donated to various stray-dog welfare charities in the region. This, again, is a heartening thing to hear, but it’s also easy to wonder why one dog’s journey has been so noteworthy, when so many others’ journeys have been quietly ended in shelters around the world. Either way, Gobi’s story really is a remarkable one, and it speaks to the heart of why people love animals, and why animals are so lovable in turn, not only for what they are, but for what they can be.