A Brain's Best Friend

A Brain's Best Friend is a side quest in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on, Old World Blues.

Quick walkthrough

 * 1) Try to find a trace of Gabe in Higgs Village.
 * 2) Find Gabe's bowl behind what used to be Dr. Borous's house.
 * 3) Return to Dr. Borous.

Detailed walkthrough
Begin the quest by talking to Dr. Borous and then going to Higgs Village. When you first enter, your objective is the house to the left on the far corner; House #103. Behind the house is a doghouse with "GABE" spelled out below it, on the mat, along with Gabe's bowl which you must now take.

If the player has taken the Wild Wasteland trait, a unique miniature deathclaw named Stripe will be inside the doghouse. Stripe has the attack and health of a full sized deathclaw, so caution is advised. It does seem to have a boundary of attack which seems to stop near the front of the house. This can be exploited.

Proceed to the X-8 Research Center and go through the main quest line for this area, X-8: High School Horror!, till you reach the Residential Test Facility part of the quest.

This quest can still be completed if the player had killed Gabe prior to acquiring the quest.

When you return to Dr. Borous and give him the dog bowl, he will reminisce about his dog and thank you for killing him; as he believes it saved him the trouble. If you kept Gabe alive, he will thank you for sparing him. You may also pass a Speech check of 45 and make him feel remorse for the horrid experimentation he did to Gabe.

Behind the scenes

 * The quest name is a probable nod to the saying that "A dog is a man's best friend".
 * Or from the 1993 film 'Man's Best Friend' in which a mechanized dog has to be put down, violently.