When Fate Delivers Your Dog: Martha Teichner’s Book “When Harry Met Minnie” | Gobi The Desert Dog

Transcript

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:06] Hello, I'm James Jacobson

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:00:07] and I'm Pamela Lorence.

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:09] Welcome to Dog Edition. The first show designed for you to listen to while you walk

your dog.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:00:15] And if you like what you hear today on your dog walk, make sure you subscribe. Just click that little button and follow Dog Edition, so you never miss an episode.

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:24] Today

on the show.

We're going to speak with Martha from CBS news. She has a new book out and it's heartwarming and touching, and you'll love the interview.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:00:34] And later in the show, Dog Edition contributor, Saskia Edwards brings us the story of Gobi, a scruffy homeless little dog who earned her name after following ultra marathoner, Dion Leonard on an extreme test of endurance in the Gobi

desert.

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:49] So if you love dogs, as much as we do pause what you're doing. Leash up your pup and let's take a walk. We've got a lot to talk about on today's episode of Dog Edition

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:01:02] pepper. You want

>>: [00:01:03] to go for a walk?

>> James Jacobson: [00:01:10] Once upon a time or more precisely July 23rd, 2016 at about eight thirthy in the morning. A chance encounter at the Union Square farmer's market in New York City began what can only be described as a fairy tale. But one with a complicated happily ever after

>> Martha Teichner: [00:01:32] over. And I saw somebody I hadn't seen in a year or two

>> James Jacobson: [00:01:37] That's Martha long time, CBS news correspondent, and award winning journalist.

She was at the farmer's market that day with her Bull Terrier, Minnie. They were both mourning the death of Goose Martha's other Bull Terrier. And Minnie's close companion for many years. That's when she bumped into Steven Miller Segal. They were acquainted as many New Yorkers are from walking their dogs around the neighborhood.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:02:06] Well, there, he was at the farmer's market. I hadn't seen him in a year or two. I had never seen him at the farmer's market. Uh, he came over and said, well, where's Goose. And I told him that Goose had died and that I had been searching for an older Bull Terrier male to, um, be a companion to Minnie. Call

>> James Jacobson: [00:02:25] that meeting a coincidence or maybe fate or the guiding hand of the universe.

Call it what you like. What happened next feels like one of those only in New York experiences.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:02:39] And he pulled out his phone and he showed me a picture that he had taken, um, when we were walking along the river, Uh, a couple of years before, and he said, remember, um, I took this picture of Minnie and Goose, um, to send to my friend Carol, who had a Bull Terrier.

And, and I said, no. And he said, well, um, It's my friend Carol Fertig, and she's dying of liver cancer and her dog, Harry is eleven and a half. And, um, nobody wants him and she's desperate to find a home for him because she's been warned that she will probably have to have him put down, um, because he will be difficult to rehome and, um, he said, Would you take

him?

>> James Jacobson: [00:03:31] It was a deceptively simple question. Could this be the answer to Martha's wish for a companion for Minnie?

>> Martha Teichner: [00:03:38] I

heard this sound bubbling about me saying, well, yes, if they get along .

>> James Jacobson: [00:03:45] That condition, if the get along was an out, if Martha wanted to take it. But after learning a little bit about Carol Fertig,

>> Martha Teichner: [00:03:53] Carol was arresting and larger than life and well-read, she was smart.

She was incredibly funny. She had a rapier like sense of humor, which stayed with her til the very, very, very end of her life.

>> James Jacobson: [00:04:09] It seemed like a foregone conclusion. Martha would take Harry when the time came.

A first date was arranged for the dogs.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:04:23] We sat out on the stoop for a couple of hours and, um, the dogs ignored each other completely and Minnie kind of slouched herself around and showed Harry her behind. And the Harry completely ignored her and went digging in my pocket for treats.

>> James Jacobson: [00:04:39] But the humans on that stoop had a lovely time.

It was the beginning of a close and wonderful friendship, but sadly one that would come with an ending.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:04:52] You know, you worry about what it's going to be like meeting and getting to know and conversing with someone who's dying.

You worry that it's going to be horrible, but it wasn't.

>> James Jacobson: [00:05:09] Carol's Terminal liver cancer was the result of practically living next door to ground zero in the aftermath of nine eleven.

The two women had worked to do. They had limited time to get Harry and Minnie to fall in love.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:05:29] Carol and I were like silly, um, mothers matchmaking. I would say that by the third time Harry came over, it was pretty clear. They would get along. They started to play with each other and roughhouse and do all the moves and Minnie diving under tables and Harry trying to go after her and Minnie on the couch, running back and forth, teasing him while he took two, try to figure out what was going on and, and Harry with his.

The bowl, uh, the metal bowl filled with tennis balls that he always carried around with them, jiggling it in his teeth and making noise with it. And throwing with tennis balls and many tearing after. I mean, that kind of thing made it pretty clear that they liked each other.

>> James Jacobson: [00:06:13] It was puppy love after all, or maybe more senior love, but Carol, wasn't ready to turn Harry over to Martha just yet.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:06:22] I had expected her to say, okay, here's Harry two, three meetings, but it didn't work that way at all. And it, I came to realize very quickly that Harry symbolized. Life as she knew it, that she had to keep him as long as possible, because even if I said yes, um, having Harry till she couldn't take care of him anymore was how Carol clung to life.

And, um, and anyway, I was fine with that because I really got to like, The get togethers. Um, they were ostensibly to socialize the dogs, but pretty soon they were gatherings of friends.

>> James Jacobson: [00:07:02] This unexpected friendship could have been predestined. Fate had intervened years earlier in the 1990s.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:07:10] I was walking up 10th Avenue, not too far from my house.

And there was a restaurant with outdoor tables and there she was sitting with her first Bull Terrier, a white one named Violet.

>> James Jacobson: [00:07:22] Martha stopped to introduce herself as a fellow dog lover or Bull Terriers. It was an encounter that she never forgot.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:07:30] It was the singular looking person with the big hat and the big dark glasses.

And, a dog named Violet. You don't ever forget a Bull Terrier named Violet.

>> James Jacobson: [00:07:41] Fate stepped in once again, when Carol took Harry to the vet. Martha's Bull Terriers happened to be there. That very same bet at the very same time. And although Martha wasn't there with them, Carol learned who they belong to. Martha recounts what Carol later said about that day.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:07:59] Ah, Martha Teichner has Bull Terriers and she knew who I was because she watched Sunday Morning, every Sunday. She said to me, you might not believe this, but because I knew about your dogs, she said one of the very first things I thought after I was diagnosed was wouldn't it be great if Martha Teichner took Harry.

Well, of course she didn't even have any connection with me at that point.

>> James Jacobson: [00:08:27] It wasn't until Martha bumped into Steven that fateful morning at the farmer's market that morning. When the simple question would you take him was asked that is when all these little coincidences began to form the connections that led to this beautiful, but complicated fairy tale.

>> Martha Teichner: [00:08:46] I said yes. And, uh, it, it, um, was really, really, really profoundly meaningful to me. Um, because it led me to a set of experiences that I will treasure for the rest of my life. And yes, there were sad moments and there were, you know, ultimately I knew how the story would end. Both for Carol and for Harry, uh, but on the road to that, there was just so much richness and so much pleasure and so much fun even.

And I came away completely. Um, revitalized in a way, because I was able to, um, break out and say yes.

>> James Jacobson: [00:09:39] And like all fairytales, this one came to an end. After Carol passed away, Harry lived with Martha for 16 months before he died. Shortly thereafter, Minnie also crossed the rainbow bridge. With Carol's blessing, Martha wrote their story. It's called when Harry Met Minnie, the book is in stores now and also available as an audio book read in Martha's iconic voice.

It's the legacy they all deserve. And one that came from simply saying yes. And now, a new story has begun for Martha Teichner. She adopted Girly recently, another Bull Terrier,

>> Martha Teichner: [00:10:24] Girlie, what my dog wants to go out. Um, and I go let her out? Okay, I'll be right back

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:10:32] We're also going to do take a break. When we come back, we have another story of a chance encounter.

This one was between an ultra marathoner and a scruffy little stray dog. It's a story that teaches us all a lesson in endurance.

>> James Jacobson: [00:10:45] You're listening to Dog Edition.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:10:50] Welcome back to Dog Edition. Saskia Edwards submitted this next story to our 101 dog stories contest. She takes us on a journey to the Gobi Desert and introduces us to an ultra marathoner, a little stray dog, and an incredible test of endurance.

Here's the Desert Dog I Couldn't Desert.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:11:10] Dion Leonard is an ultra marathon runner, ultra marathons and not like regular marathons. For one thing, they can be a lot longer and often held in extreme places and conditions. They test people psychologically, physically, and frankly, emotionally. A few years ago, Dion was about to start one of these intense races in the desert. In China.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:11:36] The Gobi desert in China was where this race was and one of the hottest and windiest and driest location known to man. So the race is 250 kilometer race you know, it goes for a whole week. You have to carry all of your food and kit to survive the week as well.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:11:51] It was going to be rough. But what Dion didn't realize at the time was that this was to be the beginning of a much bigger test of his endurance in a totally different way.

It started with dog who seemed to appear out of nowhere following and bothering Dion on day two of the race.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:12:14] It's about a hundred runners at the race and, uh, we were about to set off and run off for the day of running 25 miles, so about 42 kilometers. It was chewing on my shoes. She was chewing on specifically, the guide is that keep the sand out of your shoes.

I sort of flipped her off at my foot and told her to go away. She jumped back onto my shoes and she started chewing on the sand gate is again seeing that dog keeping chewing on my shoes. It was a little bit annoying. So. race started and everyone's running down the trail and here I am with this damn dog on my leg and I'm trying to run down the trail and I can't get rid of it.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:12:53] Could you describe how she looked when you first saw her?

>> Dion Leonard: [00:12:56] She was in a pretty, pretty bad condition. She, I mean, she was a young dog. She had really bad skin. Her hair on the back of her coat was really, really wiry you know, you could tell she'd had a really tough life, but, there's something about her.

Like she was a sweet dog. She was always very friendly with people. She trusted people, but who knows where she came from, what she was doing out there, what she was living on, what she was eating, et cetera. We think she's mixed between chihuahua and Shitzu which is very, very common for that part of Northwest China.

Very short legs, very big brown eyes. And she's got this really weird curly tail as well. And she's a really unique looking dog.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:13:35] This dog didn't appear to have an owner and followed Dion all day.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:13:40] She actually ran the whole 25 miles that day behind me or at times she'd run ahead of me. Yes, for the whole day she was there, but I never spoke to her.

I never gave her any of my food. I remember crossing the finish line that day, they were sort of clapping and cheering and playing the drums. And I thought, this is really weird. Why are they doing that for me? And it wasn't until I crossed the finish line and I looked behind me and they was still clapping and cheering and playing the drums that it was a little dog running in behind me, but it was at that moment because I'm such a competitive person.

When I go to these races, as I finished and I saw what she'd done and I just, it sort of hit me that. I hadn't spoken to her. I hadn't given her any food and she collapsed in a tent next to me. And I started to look after her

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:14:22] and Dion even gave her a name Gobi after the desert, where she was found. She slept in Dion's tent that night.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:14:30] It's kind of cool. Little dog had slept next to me. She smelled really bad. And I still wasn't thinking very much of it until day three.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:14:38] Day three was where things between Gobi and Dion changed. This leg of the race was about another 25 miles and included a river crossing with deep water and ferocious currents.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:14:53] There were really strong currents

it could sort of push you away to drag you away if you sort of, weren't really strong footed and as I was walking through the one of the river crossings I was getting across, so about halfway, when I could hear this barking and yelping and whining behind me, and it sort of stops me in my tracks. And I turned around to see this dog running up and down the river bank and she was panicking and she was worried that I'd left her there.

Which of course I had because I was running a race, you know, first and second runners were ahead of me in the race and yeah, all of this commotion happened behind me and it, it did stop me in my tracks because I wasn't sure what was happening to the dog. And if she'd have tried crossing the water, you know, she would have been washed away.

I made the splt decision to go back and pick her up and as I knelt down to pick her up, she, looked at me with sort of trust and a bit of sort of love in her eyes. And I picked her up and I sort of held her a little bit away from me, just hoping she wouldn't bite me. But as I sort of held her, she sort of made her way into my sort of chest and into my arms.

And the next thing she's looking up at me with his big brown eyes. And it was the real moment where I could see this love in her eyes and I just felt this massive connection to her and I can't explain what happened in that moment, but that was the moment that would change both of our lives forever.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:16:20] Dionne jeopardized his chances of winning the race to help the dog Gobi managed to keep running except on days when it was too hot.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:16:32] Yeah, Gobi's a very fast dog. She's capable of running much quicker than I am. And those four legs, like they could motor through the desert, it made running the desert a lot easier for me because it put a smile on my face to see the fun she was having out there.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:16:47] When did you realize, okay, this dog has to come home with me?

>> Dion Leonard: [00:16:51] You know, we had so many moments out there that just made me realize that I needed to bring Gobi home and give her a better life. So, I made it that promise out in the desert to do that and having a very, difficult destructive, uh, depressive and abusive upbringing myself and leaving home at the age of 13, I sort of felt a little bit of myself in Gobi.

So I wanted to give her a better life and be the person I guess, that I wanted to have around me when I was younger.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:17:18] Dion's childhood was tough. He was homeless, like Gobi too.

I've lived in someone's shed. I've lived under bridges. I've lived in hotels, caravan, hostels, pretty terrible conditions, just to try and put myself through school and not knowing where food was going to come from one day to the next and having to go out and find a job at the age of 13, it's made me sort of a very vulnerable person growing up and something that

I realized Gobi was also very vulnerable in the desert as well, and that she had nothing and nobody out there to look after her. It was a simple thing for me to be able to do, to just sort of make the promise. And then I had to sort of stick through it and make sure that we got Gobi home.

It was a simple promise to make, but getting Gobi home would be anything but simple.

Dion had to return home to Scotland. He already had a flight booked, but Gobi couldn't come with him yet. She needed to get a bunch of vaccinations and paperwork before she could travel. But a volunteers said, they'd look after her in China.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:18:21] She was being looked after in a city called Urumchi city of 3 million people.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:18:26] Dion started a crowdfunding campaign. He started getting media attention and he actually raised all the money he needed to get Gobi to the UK.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:18:38] And I received a phone call to say that she'd gone missing. And of course I was devastated and heartbroken to hear that she's missing in that big city of 3 million people as well,

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:18:48] Gobi had run away. She'd gone missing.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:18:52] That was really the first sort of moment that I had to sort of test my commitment and promise to Gobi of, you know, bringing her home.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:19:02] So, when did you decide that you personally go and try and find her?

>> Dion Leonard: [00:19:09] Well, I had to speak to my employers, say, look, you remember that story of me and the dog, and unfortunately she's gone missing now. And, uh, they were great. That gave me a blessing to go out there and look for her.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:19:20] So Dion took several flights and traveled thousands of miles back to China.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:19:25] Not knowing the language, not knowing anyone and setting up a search and volunteer team was certainly pretty overwhelming, but that's what I sort of set out to do. And to make sure that I at least tried my best to try and find her, which I thought it was probably really a needle in the haystack.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:19:41] What kind of help did you start to get?

Or how did the search go?

>> Dion Leonard: [00:19:45] So I started off with one lady and she would help me putting up these posters of a Gobi being missing. And it also had a reward amount of money on there for anyone that found Gobi. They would get 10,000 Chinese dollars as well. So it was sort of creating a little bit of awareness around the streets and it was then that

social media started to pick up in China on the story and how I'd traveled all of this way. So this little dog, I thought it was really amazing. And then the press started to pick up on it. And whilst all this was happening, more and more and more volunteers started to come out and to help. And suddenly we had hundreds and hundreds of volunteers searching.

Yeah, it was incredible. It really was amazing.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:20:28] All these people coming together, looking for Gobi, it was amazing. But with all the hype, things took an unexpected turn.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:20:37] A lot of pressure on, on myself to find Gobi. And we had to just keep searching and keep looking. And, and one of the things that happened was we had that 10,000 Chinese dollars.

That's equivalent to three months salary for someone in that area. So yeah, a bit of a negative as well, because we had a lot of bad people coming out of the, uh, out of the woodwork trying to tell me that they had Gobi, they wanted more money. They were going to kill Gobi, if I didn't give them more money, they would, we would have phone calls from people saying, we've got your dog and I'd go around their home,

and you know, to be a Labrador. I'd say that that's, this is in the dog. Is that? And they're like, no.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:21:16] Then it got downright scary.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:21:19] This story gained so much news media, social media popularity that the Chinese government started to also message us to say, look, we're happy with everything that's going on, but if this turns sour or things go wrong, or if Dion starts to say negative things to the press, then we're going to shut down the search and I'd be kicked out of the country straight away.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:21:44] This turned into a way more complicated and stressful search than you first anticipated. But at any point, did you sort of give up hope and think this is too complicated and difficult? I need to just give this search up.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:21:59] The search was spiraling out of control. I was becoming very depressed about the state of where we were going with the search and the likelihood that we wouldn't find Gobi.

There was certainly a very, very difficult period and something that I wouldn't ever want to have to go through. Again.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:22:15] Dion was really about to throw in the towel, give it all up, but then he got a

message.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:22:21] Well, it's actually late one evening and we received a message. Say, someone's just sent a photo of this dog and they think it's Gobi, and it was a father and son who were walking through a park and they noticed this little dog between the bushes and looking sort of thirsty and hungry.

And they thought, ah, I think that's the dog that's in there. That's been missing that everyone's talking about and we'll send a picture over and we'll see the dog. When we received the picture, I wasn't so sure it was Gobi. The picture wasn't great. And the dog that was in the picture had this wound on its head.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:22:57] Hesitantly Dion, and some volunteers made a one hour drive to see the

dog.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:23:02] By the time we got there, I was pretty tired. And, pretty much over at all. And I remember walking up into the home, thinking this isn't going to be, this is going to be another shake down for money. Another problem. As I've walked into the house, I walked in behind the translator, the driver. So I was the last person to walk in and I hadn't said a word and

across the other side of the lounge room was this little dog and it came running towards me and it was barking and yelping and whining, just like the dog along the river that day and jumped up into my arms and I realized straight away it was Gobi.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:23:38] How did you feel?

>> Dion Leonard: [00:23:40] Oh, I was in tears. I was like, Uh, amazed, overwhelmed, overjoyed.

I could not believe it. Everyone else around me just kept saying, is that Gobi? Is that Gobi? I was like, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I mean, I just couldn't believe it.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:23:55] Gobi was injured, but alive

Dion decided to stay in China this time to organize the paperwork for Gobi to travel. And then finally they boarded the flight from China to Europe.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:24:13] Gobi actually flew next to me in the little bag and you know, a little carry on bag. So she sat next to me in the plane. You know, as we drove down the street in, in Edinburgh where we, where we live, like people in the streets that are clapping and cheering.

And then of course we had a little party at our place as well. So it was the first time I'd probably thought about it for six months that I'd been away. We'd actually made this happen to finally come to fruition that we brought Gobi home.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:24:42] Gobi settled into Scottish life. The weather is quite different from the desert though.

She got used to the cat and becoming a dog celebrity. She has an Instagram at finding Gobi and Dion wrote a book called finding Gobi a little dog with a very big heart. And it's even looking like it's going to be turned into a movie, not bad for a stray desert dog.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:25:04] If you just told me as a 13 year old boys, when I left home with nothing that I'd had this amazing story and Gobi as a stray desert dog would also leave the Gobi desert and have this amazing story as well.

It's, um, it's pretty incredible to think where life can take you.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:25:20] Life is full of surprises.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:25:22] I would never have ever have guessed that I would have, you know, forgone winning a race for a little dog that I did know, but you know, at the end of the day, the race was irrelevant and, I guess I won Gobi in the end.

And that was, that was pretty cool.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:25:37] Good consolation prize.

>> Dion Leonard: [00:25:39] Absolutely. The best I wouldn't, I wouldn't change it for any award or any metal. That's for sure.

>> Saskia Edwards: [00:25:47] Dion Leonard. For Dog Edition. I'm Saskia Edwards in Mexico City, Mexico

>> James Jacobson: [00:25:55] Desert Dog I Couldn't Desert is a winner of our monthly hundred and one dog stories contest where we are awarding over $15,000 in prize money, as we curate great dog stories from around the world.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:26:09] It was submitted to us by Saskia Edwards reporting from Mexico City. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, visit dog podcast network.com for information on how to submit a piece to our 101 dog stories contest.

>> James Jacobson: [00:26:23] Thanks for bringing Dog Edition along with you on your walk today. We'll be back next week with another episode, but chances are you and your dog will be taking a walk between now and then, and we have something else for you to listen.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:26:36] If you're interested in hearing more from some of our guests, please check out DPN sister show

>> James Jacobson: [00:26:43] This week here, my extended conversation with CBS news correspondent, Martha Teichner.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:26:49] And subscribe, and follow Dog Edition,

so you can take us along on your dog walk next week.

>> James Jacobson: [00:26:54] What happens when one person in a relationship is a dog person and the other is not? Must love dogs. That's next week when we chase a tale about a new dating app for dog lovers only, and dig into our relationships.

>> Leigh Issacson: [00:27:11] If 80% of dog owners sleep with a dog in their bed.

And you want to invite someone to that bed. Uh, you're going to have to have that

conversation really early on.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:27:19] You'll hear that story. And lots of more on the next episode of Dog Edition

>> James Jacobson: [00:27:24] Dog Podcast Network is for dog lovers by dog lovers. And that means we want to hear from you. Visit our main website at dog podcast network.com.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:27:34] You can check the show notes for links and information on how to reach us, including our old-school recorded listener line, where you can call in to share your dog stories with us. Call 866 TALK Dog. 866 Talk Dog..

>> James Jacobson: [00:27:51] We are looking for correspondence as we grow this podcast and this network, and you can be just like Saskia Edwards, and you could win

in our 101 dog stories contest. We are looking for journalists and storytellers and audio engineers to submit stories. For details, visit our main website dog podcast, network.com and check out our hundred and one dog stories contest.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:28:14] And join our pack. Be sure to subscribe and follow Dog Edition in your favorite podcast app.

And tell a friend about the show. I'm Pamela Lawrence and I'll see you at the dog

park.

>> James Jacobson: [00:28:23] I'm James Jacobson, and I want to thank you for listening today. On behalf of all of us here at Dog Podcast Network, we wish you and your dog, a warm Aloha.