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Gobi | From This Is Love · Heavyweight

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey there, folks in podcast land.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Am I one of the folks in podcast land?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: You're actually one of the people who create podcast land.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I'm a world maker.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Someone's got to be pulling those levers and keeping the
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: assembly line going. If I haven't already said so, I'm
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Jonathan and.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I'm Kalila.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: And we're here to tell you... I feel like we're
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: about to launch into like an early 80s rap. And
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: we're here to say, if you like Heavyweight, I think
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: you might enjoy the podcast, This Is Love. It's from
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: the makers of Criminal and hosted by Phoebe Judge. It's
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: another narrative nonfiction podcast.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: And they look at all kinds of love between people,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: sometimes not between people. This is an episode that's about
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a dog and a person.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It's just really cool. I've never heard a story quite
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: like it before, and I think our audience will enjoy
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: it as well.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: So in June of 2016, Dion Leonard attempted one of
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: the toughest races in the world, a 155-mile ultramarathon through
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: the Gobi Desert in China. At the start of day two,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: he looked down and saw a little brown dog chewing
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: on his shoes. Dion and the little dog were about
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: to embark on an adventure that would change both of
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: their lives.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: As the listener, as a podcast listener, you're about to
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: embark on an adventure that, would you say, I don't know,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: somewhat change your life?
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Everything changes a life, right? It might, yeah.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: You're about to embark on an adventure with them.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: We're going to be back with a new heavyweight next week.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: But we don't want to leave you contentless because we
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: know how you get. When you say, where is my content?
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: You get hangry for your content. And we want to
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: keep you content with the content. So strap in and
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: push those earbuds into your ears, not too deep. And
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: you can find This Is Love wherever you get your podcasts.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Enjoy the episode. Enjoy. But first, some words from our sponsors.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: When Dion Leonard is training for a race, he says
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: he sets up two large industrial heaters in his spare bedroom.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: He wears the warmest clothes he has and puts on
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: a backpack loaded with 15 pounds of rice or sugar,
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: and then he sets the treadmill incline as high as
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: it can go and runs for hours. He does this
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: to train himself to run ultramarathons in extreme conditions, like
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: through China's Gobi Desert. In June of 2016, he took
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: three flights and a long train ride from Edinburgh, Scotland,
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: to a remote part of northwestern China. He says he
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: remembers feeling exhausted before the race even started. The first day,
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: he ran 25 miles. On the morning of day two,
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: he was gearing up to run 25 more.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: And I remember looking at my bag to make sure
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: that everything's zipped up and the chest straps are done
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: up tightly, and I'm looking down and making sure that
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: I'm ready to go, and I look down, and I
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: see this little dog chewing on my shoes. And I
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: start to yell out to the hundred other runners at
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: the race and the race organizers.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: The dog was skinny and small, some kind of light
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: brown terrier that didn't look like it had been bathed
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: in a long time, that had skin problems, no collar.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: No one had any idea where the dog had come from.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: People said it had to be a stray. Dion was
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: there to win a race, 155 miles over seven days,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: with your food and water and supplies on your back.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: One of the toughest races in the world. I just
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: don't understand how you run for so long.
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: Well, I think sometimes I ask myself the same questions,
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: to be honest.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: Well, let's just say today is a Wednesday. How much
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: will you run? Do you run every day?
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I probably run 10 to 20 miles most days. Obviously,
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: sometimes work gets in the way, but yeah, I probably
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: do 60 to 100 miles a week in training.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: So you will run 10 to 20 miles today?
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: I'll do 10 today, but it's pretty wet and windy today,
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: so yeah, maybe not.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: What will be your pace for your mile today?
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: Between six, seven minute miles. So it won't take me
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: very long to knock out 10 miles. It's pretty flat
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: down here as well, so that helps.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: At the end of day one of the ultramarathon in
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: the Gobi Desert, Dion was in third place. He'd trained
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: hard and was feeling confident that he could win the
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: whole race. And then he looked down and saw some
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: little dog biting at his shoe.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: Like, whose dog is this? Someone come and get this
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: damn dog away from me. And I love animals. It
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: wasn't that at all. It was just I was focused
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: on the race. I was focused on the day running ahead.
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: And also the race was literally about to start. So
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: I didn't want this dog to be trodden on. I
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: didn't want to trip over it. So as I'm yelling
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: this out, the race starting gun goes off and we're
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: running down the road. And this dog's still on my
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: leg as the other 100 runners start to form a
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: line in front of me and take over. And here
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: I am mid-pack. nearly last when I finally get this
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: dog to get off my leg and I started to
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: run and I hit the trail and I was running
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: up some of the hills just before the big mountain
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: pass and I heard it behind me a couple of
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: times but I didn't think anything of it.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: He ran through a forest and then the trail became
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: steeper and steeper. Soon he was running through snow. At
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: one point he passed a glacier. Everything was foggy and misty.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: He was so high up He was running through the clouds.
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: And I ran into the finish line which was 25
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: miles that day and I remember there were people cheering
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: and clapping and the locals were playing drums and I
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: thought that was really weird because actually that really only
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: happens for the first male and the first female winners
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: of the day and I was fourth overall and it
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: wasn't a great result. So So I thought, why is
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: everyone cheering and clapping and getting so excited for me?
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: And as I crossed the finish line, all of that
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: noise and commotion was still carrying on. And it was
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: then when I turned around that I could see this
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: little brown dog running in behind me. And of course,
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: all of the attention.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Was for her.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: This little brown dog had followed him for 25 miles,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: over a mountain. Dion didn't know what to think. There
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: they were at the finish line, staring at each other.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: I'm Phoebe Judge, and this is love. Dion decided to
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: call the little dog, Gobi. He needed to eat, and
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: he knew she must have been hungry too.
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: I started to unpack my bag to get my food
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: out and my food consists of peanuts and almonds and
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: dried meats and dehydrated food. All lightweight food, high calories,
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: not specifically really great for dogs but I started to
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: eat some of the dried meat which is great for
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: the protein during the race and started to feed Gobi
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: as well and she was so hungry that I ended
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: up giving most of my food to her so She
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: then collapsed next to me and laid next to me
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: and went to sleep, and it was like she'd had
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: a great day. She now had a full belly, and
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: she was next to the one she wanted to be
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: next to.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: When Dion woke up the next morning, the dog was
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: still curled up next to him. He says he was
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: surprised she'd stuck with him. There were plenty of other
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: people around, runners and race organizers, that had also given
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: her food and attention. But she seemed to like him.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: Midway through day three, they reached a river about 300
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: feet wide. Dion says he's about six feet tall and
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: the water came up to his waist. The current was
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: very strong and he had to wade through it carefully.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: He could see the first and second place runners ahead
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: of him in the water.
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: I thought to myself, you know, they're not that far
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: ahead of me. I can definitely catch them. I can
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: make it through the water quickly and catch up to them.
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: And then he heard barking and yelping behind him.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: And at that moment I spin around to see what's
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: going on and it's Gobi running up and down the
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: riverbank and she's barking, yelping and whining because I'd left
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: her there and she knows that she can't cross the
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: water on her own. And if she had, she would
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: have been washed away. So I just made this decision,
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: this instant decision to go back and to pick her
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: up and as I went down, got on my knees
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: and and lifted her up and put her in my
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: arms she just nestled into my arms and she turned
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: to me and she looked at me with these big
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: brown eyes and she just had love in her eyes
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: and from that moment on I was I was sold
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: I mean.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: That's a big deal to waste time in a race.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah it's a huge deal um for someone that is
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: there to win the race and um makes that decision
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: to to go back and to sacrifice the time and
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: the effort just to do it. Um, it was just
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: something inside of me that I did. I didn't really
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: think about it at the time. I just knew it
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: was the right thing to do. And, um, I had,
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: I had this sort of inner belief that it was
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: the right thing. And, I needed to do it and
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: just did it.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: So once you cross the river, you put her down
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: and keep running and she's right there by your side?
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we carry on and a few other occasions throughout
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: that same stage, we cross some other water crossings, not
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: as large. And we also cross some, um, river bridge
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: gates that she couldn't cross on her own so I'd
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: have to pick her up a couple of times and
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: carry across them as well and I just every time
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: I picked her up she just nestled into my arm
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: and she just seemed to put on this smile and
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: she just she knew how to work me let's put
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: it that way and every time I did it I
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: just fell more and more in love with her and
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: it just she just sort of got into my heart
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: from that moment.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: As Dion and Gobi neared the end of the day,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: Dion says he was sure he'd be finishing in third place.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: But then he reached the top of a ridge and
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: could see the two runners ahead of him. They didn't
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: look like they were going very fast at all.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: And I encouraged Gobi to run as fast as she
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: could and tried to run quietly and quickly behind them
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: to try and catch up on them. And they'd obviously
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: been struggling. It was a really hot day and it
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: was dry conditions. I think they're out of water as well. And,
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: you know, I remember saying to Gobi, let's go, let's
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: try and win this stage. And about 50 meters before
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: the actual finish line, they turned around to see myself
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: and Gobi running past them and they were shocked. And
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: I ended up finishing that stage first and Gobi was second.
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: And it was just It was just the best feeling
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: to know that I'd done the right thing and gone
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: and got Gobi, picked her up, taken her across the river,
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: but still went on to win that stage. And I
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: was very proud of myself for that. And, you know,
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: of course, Gobi and I became as thick as thieves
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: really then.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: This was about the halfway point of the race. It
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: seemed like Gobi would keep running with him, whether it
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: was good for her or not. Dion had trained to
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: run 155 miles in the heat, but he figured, she hadn't.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: He was worried, and so he arranged for a race
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: volunteer to drive Gobi for the next two stages of
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: the race. And then they ran the final stage together.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Dion stopped running every few miles to give Gobi water.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: At one point, another runner stopped too, instead of taking
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: the opportunity to pass. The runner said it wouldn't be fair.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: I could hardly run past you while you're giving her
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: a drink. Dion and Gobi crossed the finish line together.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Dion came in second overall, not the first-place finish he'd
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: dreamed of, but he says he barely thought about that.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: At one point, he'd wondered if he'd finished the race
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: at all. He says, just by being there, Gobi made
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: me want to keep going. He'd already decided that he
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: didn't want to go home to Scotland without her. This
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: isn't an easy thing. I mean, taking a dog from
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: China back to Scotland or really any country to any
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: country is not something you just put the dog under
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: your seat. There's a whole long, complicated process, right?
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, especially in China. And this is a process that
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: can take three months at the best of times. It's
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: usually a three-month quarantine process just to find out whether
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: a dog has rabies or not. So you've got to
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: go through that process just for that alone.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Dion knew it would take time to put together a
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: realistic plan. A race volunteer offered to take care of
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: Gobi while Dion went home to work out the details.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: He contacted as many pet travel companies as he could,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: asking for help. Everyone said no. Logistically, it was a nightmare.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: Just getting Gobi to one of the bigger cities in China,
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: where she could quarantine, was looking nearly impossible.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: People from Beijing or Shanghai... could organize Gobi to be
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: moved out of the country for us, but they needed
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: someone from the region where Gobi was to bring the
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: dog to either Beijing or Shanghai. Now, the lady that
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: was looking after Gobi, she couldn't do that. So we
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: were trying to find out how we could move Gobi.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: Gobi didn't have any of the medical requirements to go
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: on a plane or to be moved, even in a car.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: So it was proving difficult to find out how this
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: could happen.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: And during this time, Dion says he stopped really getting
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: any updates about how Gobi was doing. The race volunteer
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: who'd offered to look after Gobi answered Dion's emails very sporadically.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Sometimes Dion would go weeks without hearing anything.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: That started to make me a little queasy inside, and
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: I knew things weren't right for a little while before.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: I actually received a phone call to say Gobi had
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: gone missing, and she was missing in that city of
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: three million people, and.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I was devastated.
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: I was heartbroken and I was angry. I was really
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: upset about it and I thought we had everything in
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: place and that was the moment that I made a
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: very quick decision to fly all the way back out
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: to northwest China, all the way back. Those three aeroplanes
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: and that long train ride to go out there and
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: see if I could find her.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: Dion had been training to run an ultramarathon in Chile
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: in just a few months, which, according to his plan,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: would put him in a good position to run what's
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: considered the toughest race in the world through the Sahara
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: Desert in Morocco. But he left it all behind to
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: go find Gobi. He knew the odds weren't great. In 2016, Urumqi,
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: the city where she'd gone missing, had a population of
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: 3.5 million people. Little by little, people heard about Dion
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: and why he was looking for Gobi and stepped forward
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: to help him print and put up posters.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: Day after day after day, as we were putting these
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: posters up, the word was getting out on the streets
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: that this guy had come all this way for this
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: little dog and people thought it was pretty amazing and
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: everyone started searching. If only she knew just how popular
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: she was.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: The search team got bigger every day. One day, Dion
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: says he counted 50 people, all helping him look. One
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: of Dion's tentmates from the race flew over from Hong
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Kong to join in the search. Sometimes, the group would
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: stay out all night. It was discouraging, though. Day after day,
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: no luck. People would be eager to help, and be wrong.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: They'd tell Dion, we might have your dog, and he'd
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: show up, and it would be a black lab. I mean,
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: surely there must have been a few times where you
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: thought to yourself, you know what, I've done all I
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: can do. I've spent enough money. I've spent enough time.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: I've got a wife. I've got a job. I've got
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: a life. I can't give this dog any more time.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: No. I was committed. From the moment I made that
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: promise to Gobi, I was committed. And when she went missing,
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: that commitment just fired up even more inside me. And,
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: you know, I'm pretty driven and stubborn and.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, there was no way I was going to
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: let her down again after all that had happened. And
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: there is just some connection and bond with Gobi that, yeah,
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: I don't know. It's just unexplainable.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: One night, Dion was eating dinner with his friend from
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: the race, Richard. One of the search team members sent
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: Dion a text with a blurry picture of a dog.
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: She asked him if it was Gobi. Dion didn't think so.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: But Richard convinced him that they had to go see
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: for themselves, just to be sure.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: He said to me, look, you've got to go out
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: and see if this is her or not. And we
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: went out to this family's home and I walked in
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: behind translator, a driver, Richard and a few other people
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: from the search party and across the other side of
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: the living room was this little brown dog and she
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: came running up to me, barking, yelping and whining. As
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: soon as she saw me, I hadn't said a word and...
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: She was so excited to see me, and I knew
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: straight away it was Gobi.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: Gobi was safe with this family, but it was clear
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: she'd been through a lot. She'd been hit by a car,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: and her leg needed an immediate operation.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: But on the flip side, she was alive, and from
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: that moment onwards, she wasn't going to go out of
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: my sight.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: In order to go home with Dion, Gobi had to
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: pass a rabies test. Then, She had to wait 90
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: days for a second round of test results. Dion said okay.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: He asked his boss for a sabbatical from his job
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: as a business manager for a whiskey company. He says
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: he fully expected people to think he'd lost it completely.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: But for him, he says, it was the only solution
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: that made any kind of sense. Dion rented a small
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: apartment in Beijing for the two of them. They went
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: for long walks. and found coffee shops that would let
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: dogs inside. Dion says every morning when he woke up,
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: Gobi would be staring at him, inches from his face.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: And then, on New Year's Eve 2016, they headed home, together.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: When Gobi finally walked into the door of your home,
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: when you finally walked in four months later, five months later,
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: Gobi walks in. Do you think this little dog was saying,
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: what the hell is this? What is going on?
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: She probably was when she saw the cat. That was
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: probably a real shock to her system because I'd seen
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: her with other cats out in Beijing and she's not
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: a big fan of other cats. But I've got an
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: indoor cat called Lara. And she's a rag doll and
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: she's the princess of the house. And of course, from
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: her point of view, Lara the cat, I'd been away
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: for six months, basically. From the race started in June,
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: it was January when I got there with Gobi. So
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: for six months, I disappeared on Lara. And I'm probably
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: her favorite out of my wife and her. So here
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: I am finally turning up and she's excited to see me,
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: yet I bring in this little dog. So that was
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: a shock for both of them. But You know, they
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: get on great, I guess, most of the time. They
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: sleep together at night. They fight and run up and
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: down the hallway during the day.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it feels to me like Gobi's not like a
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: dog that you train to sit.
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: Gobi can't do any tricks at all. She can run,
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: but she can't do any tricks at all. And I've
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: never tried to teach her anything either. So I think
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: I love the personality and the dog that she is and... Yeah,
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: she's her own sort of dog and her own character,
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: and she's always got plenty of energy to burn. So, yeah,
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: it's best left that she has a great life, but
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: also that she enjoys herself as well.
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: Do you run with her now, just short little runs?
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: We do run together, short runs, maybe to the bakery
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: or to go and get a coffee. I mean, Gobi
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: loves to run. She's born to run, and she would
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: still love to be out there running ultramarathons. But with
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: the leg operation that she received and just trying to
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: look after Gobi in general, of course we don't make
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: her do anything that she shouldn't do. And now it's
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: more for enjoyment.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: What is it like to just have a normal life
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: with Gobi? I mean, the life you've known is hiding
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: out in an apartment in Beijing, running across deserts, searching
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: her down, you know, in the middle of cities. What
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: is it like to just wake up in the morning
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: and put a leash on Gobi and take her out to.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Go to the bathroom?
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: Well, it's something else just to be around her. I mean,
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: she's just such a happy little dog, like even when
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: things aren't going well. you just, uh, you can channel
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: Gobi's positivity and, uh, just makes the day better. Sometimes
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: you'll be walking along with Gobi and, you know, you'll
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: be busy. I might be busy taking a phone call
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: or on my phone or just not paying enough attention
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: to Gobi. And I feel bad about that, but Gobi
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: will sit down in the grass and, uh, there's no
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: moving her. Like she may be a small dog, but
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: when she wants to sit down and just stop and
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: take the world in, that's what I do with her. And, uh,
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: She can sit there for half an hour, an hour
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: before she decides, right, I've had enough of this, let's go.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: And it's those moments when I'm just sitting there and
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: it's making sure I make the most of every moment
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: I've got with her.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: This Is Love is created by Lauren Spohr and me
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajico, Lily Clark,
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: and Lena Sillison. This episode was mixed by Michael Rayfield
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: and Rob Byers. Our show is mixed and engineered by
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: Veronica Simonetti. Special thanks to Matt Majak. You can learn
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: more about the show on our website, thisislovepodcast.com. and you
• 23:55
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• 24:01
  Speaker 4: We're on Facebook and Instagram at This Is Love Show.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: This Is Love is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Discover more great shows at podcast.voxmedia.com. I'm Phoebe Judge, and
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: this is love.