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Health & Fitness

Animal Stories from the Healdsburg Animal Shelter

Jack Anderson, The Dog Walker, talks about Gabby the Wolfdog

Gabby The Wolfdog

I first met Gabby as Gambit perhaps 18 months ago at HAS.  

As you can see from her picture, she has definite wolf characteristics and we were told by her owner that she had tested as being part wolf.  

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Gambit was this elegant and somehow regal dog with very distinctive appearance, a sweet nature, and high intelligence.  We were all happy for her when she got adopted as she was starting to show signs of stress.

A little over a year later, I heard we had a new “owner surrender” named Gabby which turned out to be Gambit.  

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Her owner claimed that Gabby suffered from separation anxiety and when left alone had destroyed property worth over $6,000. That must have been a big couch she ate.  

I began walking her and was immediately struck with what a fine dog she was.  

One episode highlighted this.  I was walking her at Dragonfly Farms, which the dogs love because of all of the good smells of ducks, chickens, dogs, cats, etc.  

Bonnie Z,  the proprietor, is a good friend to HAS allowing us access to her beautiful property and wanting to meet all of our dogs.  

Suddenly, Athena, a manic pitbull from HAS, comes tearing down the path with a volunteer in hot pursuit.  

Athena does a couple of 360s around Gabby, and just as the volunteer captures her, one of Bonnie Z’s cats shows up.  

This is a cat that loves dogs and will walk right up to a strange dog and roll over on her back.  This of course causes Athena to go even more manic, but throughout this episode Gabby just looks around calmly as if she is the maiden aunt beset by unruly nieces and nephews. 

We all had mixed emotions when Gabby was adopted.  The dog walkers are usually not around during the adoption process and are very concerned that “our dogs” go to a good home.  

A few days later, we got an email from the new owner that alleviated our anxiety. She stated that Gabby, after a full day of playing with their puppy and 15 month old baby, was asleep on the couch.  

That image was golden to me.We since have received more emails and pictures, one of which is attached of Gabby and her puppy buddy standing guard over the baby in a swing at the park.  I don’t know who looks happier.

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