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Gremlin appears to be a Miniature Pinscher with natural ears and an undocked tail. She also has freakish rear dewclaws. All of these things would have been chopped off by a "responsible breeder." Gremlin is about 15 years old, my oldest dog at this point. But she acts like a dog half her age. She weighs about 14 pounds, and is about 12 inches tall. In 2007, she was found on the roof of a van in a supermarket parking lot and taken to a shelter. She was about one year old, fat and missing most of her fur when she was found. She also had a serious respiratory problem. After about a month of fostering by an agility friend of mine, Grem's fur had grown back. She had been nursed back to health and lost some weight. Her foster mom emailed me a photo and story and asked if I was interested in her. I wasn't really looking for another dog but she was really my type (small, long legs, smooth coat, etc.). So, I went to meet her. She got along fine with my other dogs and that was that. Grem's foster mom had named her "Olive" but that was too girlie for me. I'm not fond of human, gender-specific names for dogs. Based on her mischievous personality and size, the name Gremlin seemed more appropriate.
I did a fair amount of agility training with her but decided not to compete with her. I just didn't have the time or money since the dogs and I traveled so much at that point. My focus had shifted from agility to my website (RoadsideArchitecture.com). This video from 2010 shows us at a training session in Staten Island, NY.
Grem is great with other dogs and people of all ages. She's a quick learner and knows many tricks. She snores when she sleeps and will eat anything including mud and grass. She is also obsessed with hunting rodents and lizards. I have to be careful with her off-leash outdoors since she can take off and run for miles with apparently no concern for my whereabouts. When I adopted her, I thought she would be a Chihuahua-like lap dog but she is nothing like that. Grem may be my smallest but she's huge on personality. She is a barking maniac and has more confidence than any dog that I've ever owned. She would take on a bear. She's the last of my dogs that lived in New York City with me. She has been in 48 states, multiple times, and has seen it all. For more recent photos of her, see the pages of my current and previous packs.
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she loves the view |
soaking up the radiator heat |
waking up at a Red Roof Inn |
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with her boyfriend, Sputnik |
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cuddling with Grip (who'd have thought it possible!) |
asleep in my lap |
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demonstrating her begging trick |
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swimming Grand Coulee, WA |
post-swim Libertyville, IL |
lure coursing Colts Neck, NJ |
modeling her remote spray collar |
with a roadside pal Winlock, WA |
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Congressional Cemetery Washington, DC |
beach junk, retrieving, and chasing gulls Salem, MA |
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enjoying a street performer San Francisco |
looking for trouble Washington, DC |
somewhere in FL |
checking out Los Angeles |
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Los Fresnos, TX |
San Francisco, CA |
with a skull she found Nashville, TN |
falling for the fake horses... Wynnewood, OK |
... and the fake cow Linwood, MI |
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fishie photo-op Kabetogama, MN |
enjoying summer & corn Jackson, MI |
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Sandy Hook, NJ [photos thanks Roseann Burrets-Baars] |
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in our hometown of Ventura, CA |
on Florida roadtrips |
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