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Feb. 02, 2003 (Updated Feb. 20, 2004)
My wife Sue had been thinking about getting a small lap dog for quite awhile. However while Whitey was alive we didn't
seriously consider getting one because Whitey hated dogs and would attack them and we didn't want the added stress of
a dog to trigger a flare up in his disease. However many months after Whitey's death my wife began looking around and
decided she wanted a Yorkshire Terrier. Most breeders wanted more for a puppy than she was willing to pay. Then over
Labor Day weekend in September 2002, she saw an ad in the paper for a 7 month old Yorkie for about half the cost of a
puppy. She went to look at the dog and brought it home. It was a 7 month old female with no training that she decided
to name Gabriella, Gabby for short. It seems the people who bought her as a puppy did no training, and did so only to
breed her and brought her back after 7 months claiming she had grown too big. Sue said she saw the brother and father
of Gabby and they were smaller. Gabby weighed 5.5 pounds when we got her and is around 10 now. Anything over 7 pounds
can't be shown. She is a pure bred with papers but we never registered her because she is a pet and will never be shown.
When we first took her in she was very shy and backed off from people. Now going into the 6th month we've had her,
she's very active at home but when we take her anywhere or she goes to dog training class with other dogs, she gets real
quiet, tucks her little tail so tight to her butt that she looks like she doesn't have one and won't eat her treats.
She is making progress but we have a feeling she was abused by other people and animals before we got her. Then about 6
weeks after we got her she started to limp and lift her rear right leg. The vet did x-rays and said she had Legg-Shipps
disease which can be common in toy breeds. What happens is the blood stops flowing to the hip socket and the leg
atrophies and the ball at the top of the leg bone starts to decay. There is no cure but they can operate and cut off
the ball on the bones and have it kind of float near the joint. Over time the leg muscles build up and support the
leg. We had the surgery done (you can see the stitches in one of the pictures below) and today she walks and runs on
the leg with no problems 99.5% of the time. The only time she still lifts it is when we go outside in extreme cold. The
muscles in the leg are slowly building up also. The right rear leg is still thinner than the left but but not by much now and
it's better than it was before the operation. So my wife's bargain dog turned out to be no bargain considering the cost of the
operation and the added work of training an older dog.
However she is a little cutey and plays with Maggie quite a bit. They chase each other through the house. She
occasionally tries to play with TC but at going on 17 years old and slightly bigger than her size, all he usually does is hiss
and swat her if she gets too close and then she barks at him. Of all our animals, she's the only one we have a definite
birthday for. Gabby was born Feb. 12, 2002.
February 20, 2004
Added a few more pictures. Gabby just celebrated her 2nd birthday on Feb. 12th. Gabby likes playing tug of war with socks and toys
and also enjoys a good game of chase mixed with hide and seek.
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