She's sweet-tempered and curious - and as gentle and graceful as a 1,500-pound, 14-foot-tall animal can possibly be.
Her keepers at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore think she's beautiful. But when Gretchen the giraffe is in your face - all ears, horns, lips and drool, with her 18-inch tongue snaking out to grab a bunch of romaine - she's simply comical.
There is nothing funny, however, about the challenge zoo veterinarians face each day keeping the geriatric giraffe as healthy and comfortable as possible as she nears the end of her life. "She's an old lady with a big problem," said Dr. Ellen Bronson, the zoo's senior veterinarian.
In the wild, predators eat the lame and the slow. But surviving into old age in captivity brings its own troubles - and arthritis is one of the most common.
Gretchen, almost 22, has lived twice as long as the median for captive giraffes in North America. She suffers from arthritis and swollen joints. Some days, often when it's cold and damp outside, it pains her visibly to move around.
To ease her discomfort, veterinarians give Gretchen regular injections of a joint "supplement" familiar to creaky humans, plus anti-inflammatory drugs and pain medicine.
The Maryland Zoo is also treating a lesser kudu (an East African antelope) for severe arthritis in its front legs, Bronson said. Magnet the polar bear, several older monkeys, both the zoo's lions, a male warthog, some birds and even a timber rattlesnake are being treated, as well.
Laurie Bingaman Lackey, the giraffe studbook keeper for the American Zoo Association, said Gretchen's problem is one downside to success. "We in the zoo industry, the vets, the nutrition ... have done such a really fine job of keeping the animals healthy ... the animals are living a very long time," she said.
Despite the Maryland zoo's financial and maintenance troubles, the institution acquired a rugged and complex giraffe restraint device several years back.
With it, keepers can safely hold and support Gretchen while they inject her medicine and trim her hoofs - easing the pain of foot deformities she developed over the years. And they trained Gretchen to stroll into it.
"Hopefully she has months, to years, to go. ... At this point we're all still pretty happy with her," Bronson said.
Foot and leg problems are particularly bothersome in giraffes. A 1996 study, noted in the Giraffe Husbandry Manual of Australia's Victoria Zoos, said they "may be a partially hereditary problem."
