For as much as we know about Yuki, Pecos is the exact opposite, he’s a complete mystery. His age, his origin, his breed, his original name (if any), are all questions that have no answer.
We adopted Pecos (née “Goliath”) from VGSR in October of 2013. At the time, the official story states that he was found wandering the Blue Ridge Parkway, picked up and put in an animal shelter. where VGSR rescued him.
The unofficial story is that he was just dropped at the shelter by his owners and they made up the story about finding him on the Parkway. But no one will really ever know.
All this time no one knew his name and each place gave him a different one. VGSR gave him the name “Goliath” as it was clear he would be a big dog one day. However, no matter the name, he never learned it, and wouldn’t respond to it.
VGSR placed “Goliath” with a foster family that kept him for about 2 days. The story goes that while the family’s father tried to pull “Goliath” away from a squirrel caught in a trap, he nipped him. This apparently made the father instantly afraid “Goliath” would attack their baby daughter so they put him with an animal border. “Goliath” sat there for a month before members of VGSR found out and immediately picked him up and took him home to their foster care.
We adopted “Goliath” after much discussion and thought. We knew that he was different from our other dogs in that he had no real training (although he does understand sit and shake) and no recall as he didn’t know his name when called.
We settled on the name “Pecos” as I thought his colors reminded me of the coyotes I would see when I was a kid out west. While I couldn’t call him “coyote” I remembered that coyotes raised Pecos Bill, so “Pecos”.
Pecos also has a wild streak and a prey drive. If he could, he’d eat every squirrel in sight. Combine this with a dog that doesn’t come when called and you spend a lot of days looking for him all over the county as would run off repeatedly.
But even with a wild streak, Pecos loves people. So much so, in fact, when he’d run off, he’d usually end up at some random house where there were people about. He’d trot right in and make himself at home as if he were the family dog if he could. I spent many an embarrassing evening having to go to stranger’s homes to pick up Pecos (we smartly put a tag on his collar with his name and phone numbers to call if found).
One morning we were ready to give up on him. We had him in the car and were ready to take him back to VGSR. For whatever reason, we didn’t. We took a deep breath and decided not to give up on this dog who’d seen nothing but misery, rejection and cages for the first part of his life.
I can say today, that Pecos has rewarded us for not giving up on him. Yes, he’s still a pain and yes, he’d run off again if we didn’t keep him fenced, but he’s affectionate to us as well as guests and he keeps Yuki company and vital as they run around the yard together.