Who is Lucky Dog Rescue? Lucky Dog Small Breed Rescue or better known as Lucky Dog was formally established in 2014. Fifteen years prior, Lucky Dog Owner and Director Gabrielle (Gaby) Petersen began rescuing dogs privately and for other rescues in Wisconsin, and Chicago. Today she mainly focuses on local dogs, Wisconsin, and Texas but has rescued dogs from other southern states, Puerto Rico and even China! With nearly 25 years of experience in dog Rescue, Gaby leads her rescue along side her husband Raymond (RJ) and a very small handful of volunteers. Lucky Dog Rescue is much smaller in size than other Animal Shelters and Animal Rescues in the Fond du Lac area. Perhaps this is even the first time you have heard of us. Lucky Dog Rescue saves on average 250 dogs per year from local and southern US high volume animal shelters, rural animal control offices, and assists many local and regional community members with dogs they no longer want or can care for. All the rescued dogs are cared for in foster homes as Lucky Dog does not have a facility or building to house the dogs in. This often means the majority of the dogs are in Gaby and Rj’s home until the dogs find their forever homes. For this reason, the Rescue tends to focus on small breed dogs (25lbs or less) but has helped dogs of all sizes when the need is emergent. What Lucky Dog may lack in size they make up in heart and the tenacious effort often doing the same if not more work than rescues twice their size. Lucky Dog strives on offering above and beyond customer service to all their adopters. Any Lucky Dog adopter knows they have Gaby as a resource and mentor for as long as they have their dog. This may mean calling her at all hours, on holidays, or while she is traveling for assistance with their dog. She always has the rescue dogs well-being as her priority and is there for emergencies of any kind- including looking and catching any dogs that have run off. Lucky Dog tends to be more specialized and rescues beyond the young adoptable dogs that many shelters and rescues flock to. Lucky Dog often assists Wisconsin shelters with dogs that don’t do well in crowded shelters or in a kennel environment. The rescue also helps dogs with significant medical issues that other rescues tend to shy away from due to cost or time constraints. In the southern US, Lucky Dog Rescue saves the pregnant mama dogs, orphan litters, dogs with significant medical or surgical needs, senior dogs, and dogs requiring hospice care from the risk of Euthanasia. It is this care that tends to set the Rescue apart from others. Unfortunately, due to Lucky Dog’s small size when it comes to donations the rescue is often forgotten or people don’t know the Rescue exists. Social media can only do so much and it’s events like this that will hopefully get the word out. In addition to Rescue duties, Lucky Dog Rescue (Gaby) has signed for the next 3 years along with Critter Junction (Renee) animal control officers for the City of Fond du lac. They answer non-emergency and emergency dispatch calls for helping stray and loose animals in our community. Gaby and her family help community members who are in crisis by housing their dogs temporarily so they can get the help they need. This is often due to the owner being hospitalized or incarcerated. Gaby along with her volunteers also go out and trap loose and scared animals with Live Traps to get them back to their owners. Some of these trapping missions have taken several months or as shorts as a few hours. She prides herself on catching Butters the Pomeranian mix after being on the run for over 6 months and Fred a Doberman mix after being reported missing for 5 years. New for 2024 Lucky Dog Rescue will begin rescuing cats in our community to help with the stray and at large cat population in Fond du Lac. Gaby is very excited to take on this new mission! If you have questions for Gaby please reach out at the information below.