Story of adorable dog who was rescued by ultra runner in the desert and brought home to Britain will be made into Hollywood movie
Dion Leonard says Hugh Jackman may be able to play him, but they'll never find a dog like Gobi
A TINY bundle of fur with big, brown pleading eyes looked up at the long-distance runner – and was ignored.
So the determined stray tried another tactic to woo her object of devotion and ran alongside him across a desert for 77 MILES.
This time, her ploy worked.
The runner, Dion Leonard, fell in love, named her Gobi in honour of the vast desert in China and Mongolia they had just crossed together, and brought her home to the UK.
And now 20th Century Fox has signed a deal to make a movie about their story.
Names in the frame to play Edinburgh-based Aussie Dion include Ryan Gosling, Mark Wahlberg and X-Men star Hugh Jackman.
The 42-year-old athlete said: “I would be very happy for anyone to play me, although Hugh Jackman is a pretty fit guy.
“And the Australian part would certainly work for me as well.
“My wife quite likes the idea of Charlize Theron playing her. I like that as well.
“The biggest problem is casting for the main star, as Gobi isn’t part of the agreement and won’t be playing herself.
“Fox told me they would need 20 dogs just to play her.
“I was thinking, ‘Good luck trying to find one that looks like her, never mind 20.’
“It’s difficult because part of the appeal is she is so unique-looking and there’s her size too.”
Vets reckon she’s a possible mix of pug, shih tzu and Chihuahua.
The pair’s extraordinary story began on June 20 last year.
Dion had just finished the first stage of the 155-mile seven-day ultra-marathon called the Gobi March when he noticed the scruffy dog.
She was begging food from other competitors at their campfire, and with contestants having to carry their own supplies for the whole week, giving food away to an animal seemed crazy.
But to his amazement, they were happy to feed her.
Dion, from Queensland, said: “I remember thinking, ‘There’s no way I’m feeding it’. ”
But the next morning the tiny stray singled Dion out at the starting line for the next gruelling race segment over the forbidding Tian Shan mountain range.
She looked up at him with what he recalls as “big, beautiful brown eyes” but all he saw was a nuisance.
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He explained: “I had trained for three years for this race and I just saw her as a trip hazard.” Then the race began and Gobi — despite her little legs — decided to come along.
Dion said: “I don’t know why because I never encouraged her to come with me.”
She crossed the mountains with him but it was not until the next day — after Gobi had invited herself in to sleep in Dion’s tent — that the dog won his heart.
The racers had to cross a fast-flowing river, pushing through the chest-deep rushing water.
He said: “I was already on the other side when she started whimpering and barking.
“But the race was still going on and the other guys weren’t going to stop for me.
“I don’t know why but I turned back. That decision was really a life-changing moment for both of us.”
After Dion had waded back, then carried her across, there was no longer any doubt — they were a team. And at the end of the race the runner decided he had to bring the mutt back home to live with himself and wife Lucja.
He hired a Chinese pet agency to help negotiate the “adoption” process through tough local and UK quarantine laws and launched an online appeal for £5,000 to help pay for the process.
It went viral and — much to Dion’s amazement — money started pouring in.
He said: “It was never meant to be this global story. I was just trying to get Gobi home and some people from the race said they would give us money to help.”
By this stage Dion had travelled home to the UK while the paperwork was slowly being done — then disaster struck.
In August, just before she was due to enter quarantine for her big trip, Gobi vanished from the home where she was being looked after in Urumqi, in north west China.
Dion was devastated but supporters did not lose faith and donations kept pouring in to his Bring Gobi Home fundraising site.
Soon it had swelled to £38,000, meaning Dion could take a leave of absence from his job at whisky distillers William Grant & Sons to hunt for the missing dog.
So he flew back to Urumqi — a city of three million people — to try to find a needle in a haystack.
He recalled: “People could not believe the sacrifice I was making for this little dog. I had only known her for five or six days so it was a big decision, but I couldn’t leave Gobi behind.”
TV networks around the world were soon covering the search.
And after four days of doing interviews and putting up “lost dog” posters, a picture arrived by email.
It showed a bedraggled little furball curled up in a gutter.
Dion said: “At first I didn’t think it was her as she had a huge scar down her head.”
But it was. And when Dion walked into the room where she had been taken, she ran up to him, leaping and squealing in delight.
It turned out Gobi had been left with a head injury and dislocated hip following a mysterious accident.
He adds: “She really cowers from buses now. So we think she was run over after she went missing.” He then brought her home to Edinburgh and finally got to introduce her to wife Lucja.
Dion said: “I was worried about her meeting Lucja. But I think my wife was more nervous about it than me because she knew about the bond I had with Gobi.
“I was also worried about Gobi meeting our nine-year-old cat Lara — because she’s the boss of the house.
“But the dog and cat get on super-well.
“One minute they’re running up and down the hallway chasing each other and the next they’re sleeping beside each other.”
Dion’s book about the saga, Finding Gobi, was published yesterday and the little dog even has a stamp made from her paw-print so she can “autograph” copies.
Through the online campaign, the little dog already has fans all over the world. An amazed Dion said: “A woman from New Zealand with terminal cancer hung on until she found out Gobi was safe.
“And a guy in America wanted Gobi to help him propose to his girlfriend, but that was just logistically impossible.”
But most of all, Gobi has helped her new owner.
At the age of nine Dion lost his dad Garry to a massive asthma attack at home in Queensland.
He later found out Garry was not his biological father.
He said: “Gobi has certainly changed me. She helped settle some of the things in my mind from my childhood and things I’ve carried with me for a long time.
“During races I used to flick back to those moments. But now Gobi has helped me deal with a lot of those issues. I feel a lot happier. I’m a lot more positive person and a bit more caring and loving too.
“I was also missing my wife in China and I didn’t have anyone to depend on. Then Gobi came along.
“I think both of us were just in the right place at the right time.”
Meanwhile, Dion’s next long- distance race is across the Peruvian desert in December.
And he joked: “Let’s hope it’s only a dog I find next time and not an alpaca — although that might make a good movie sequel.”
Finding Gobi, by Dion Leonard, is out now (HarperCollins, £12.99).