At the time I met Gabe, my husband and I were not looking to add a 5th dog to our home.... we had lost our 16 year old boarder collie mix, Katy a year before, and we didn't think we were ready to adopt another dog. I knew about HALO-- and that little voice that lives inside of all of us...prompted me to call Joyce (HALO’s Dog Adoption Manager) on a Friday night in December 2004. I just had to ask how everything was going.Turns out that Joyce had a dilemma, a very large 93 pound 8 month old socially untrained (but housebroken) lab she had gotten in that day needed a foster home, and she didn’t have one for him. The next night was predicted to be rainy and cold and Joyce did not have a covered kennel to put this big boy in. After hearing this, I told Joyce I would come out the next day and meet him and foster this dog. He was totally wild, in fact I thought that he was deaf but he wasn't, he just didn't listen. Not only did he chew up reading glasses, he ate or tasted every flower and plant in our back yard, including ivy on the fence, a Scotch pine tree, and a bamboo tree. (We now have a maintenance free backyard.) After fostering for a couple of weeks, we decided our home could be quite happy with the addition of Gabe...after great training from both Applegate School for dogs in Concord, and Barkbuster, our lab Gabe is truly a gift to us. He is so sensitive and sweet...he loves to lie on the top step of the pool and cool off...he is always the first one to greet you and he loves everyone.
-- Evie
