G abby is a curious little lady. She’s as smart as they come. In just a few short days she learned to go to the end of the driveway and bring in our daily paper. In fact, she bounces to the front door in the morning to bring it in to us – and get her dog biscuit reward! What a great story for a 52-pound, 14 to 16 month old curly strawberry- blonde who came to us from being deserted near the San Gabriel River north of Austin. We think she had existed on her own outside for quite awhile. A “Good Samaritan” family, that already had six dogs, found her and turned her over to GRR to give her a forever home.

In short time she adapted to living indoors and is one of the most people-friendly dogs we’ve seen in almost three years of fostering. She’s completely housebroken. In fact, she needs to be coaxed to go out to the yard for “pit stops.” She gets along great with our seven-year old dog Sam. They play wonderfully together, wrestling around and having big fun. She is always picking up a stuffed animal or tennis ball and bringing it to us – she drops it in our lap as if to say “let’s get the playing started!”. Sometimes she and Sam play keepaway with each other in a playful, friendly way. Afterwards, she’s just happy relaxing near us, and Sam, and snoozing.

Gabby’s in good health. She initially weighed only 52 pounds, but adapting to regular meals and good food has been just what she needed. Now she’s about 61 pounds. She jumps and bounces straight up with all four feet off the floor when we take her food dish to her appointed place. We think her current size is about as large as she’ll get. She’s small for a retriever, but wiry and active. Her strawberry to reddish coat is curly-curly and soft, and she’s a real lady. She loves to cuddle on a lap, and be near people.

She watches everything with curiosity and wonder, and is unusually attentive to TV programs with animals. She’ll watch Animal Planet shows about any kind of critter, and cocks her head to hear their sounds as she watches the screen. Yesterday we caught her barking at a bloodhound that was howling in a TV movie.

Gabby is a great swimmer. She can swim circles around most other dogs as she retrieves her toys, so you can throw them again. On walks she is wonderful. She loves to inspect everything, and always knows to avoid wrapping her leash around trees and other obstacles – she’s so very smart. Gabby is one of the most personable and smartest of the 28 dogs we have fostered and will be a great addition to someone’s lifestyle.

update 06/03/03:

Gabby and and her foster brother, Sam, went to Barton Creek at Spyglass today and walked a mile or so down to Zilker Park. She was fantastic. She admires all the people, got along very well with the other dogs along the way. She’s one of the most water-loving dogs we've ever seen. She's a veritable swimming champion and can beat Sam to any tennis ball we throw!

She’s becoming more and more the charming lady every day. She's gained almost 9 pounds and is up to 61 pounds, and lookin' good. She’s been patiently waiting for her forever family – is it you?

View Pictures Here