The rescue had him listed as an Aussie mix (because only aussies come in merle, duh
), but the picture I was sent of her was obviously BC. If not pure, at least 95%. Beautiful smooth coat sable merle, just like my Gambit.
The story I was given at the time was that she had been found as a stray with her five pups. At the time, there were four puppies left. A sister and Mom had been placed in homes.
When I went to get him, I knew I had been played big time. A worker was bringing him out when I pulled up, and when she put him in the grass, he just plopped over and laid there like he had been killed. No eye contact, no interest in me, just a complete and total shut down.
I know that that's when I should have just walked away. But I was thinking with my heart and not my head and I took him home anyway. HE spent the first five days at my apartment under my bed. At night, I could hear him scuttle out to drink, but no eating and I don't know how he kept from peeing or pooping.
Side Note: When I showed his picture to a friend who runs a rescue, her exacts words were "StillandSilent, do you see the schitzophrenia in that dogs eyes? Why are you adopting him?" Of course, I had my beer goggles on and didn't see it.
Within a week, I knew that he needed more then I could give him, so we set up an appointment with a behavioralist. While waiting for the appointment, I called the shelter I adopted him from to pump them for any information I could get.
Well, I must have gotten a different person then I had spoken to before (I asked a ton of questions about him), because I got a totally different story. The litter (and Mom) were not just stray, they were totally feral. The only way they were caught was by nailing them in a humane trap when they were about 5 months old. Mom was not adopted, she was sent to a 'sanctuary' for unadoptable animals. She destroyed three foster homes, and had no ability to bond to humans. The puppies were taken from her, put in a 10x10 run and that was it. They were fed, and vetted (Gambit received 6 puppy combo shots while there. My vet almost had an anuerisym while reading his records) and were pretty much left to their own devices. He never wore a leash, was never cuddled, never had anything done to help make up for what he had missed. I don't think he was ever separated from his siblings except for when he was neutered in his entire life. Poor little guy.
Second Side Note: I really think that the shelter did what they could for him. Getting him shots, getting him fixed, providing for his physical needs. It was a tiny shelter in a tiny town, and I think that the neglect he suffered was more out of ignorance of what animals like him and his brothers needed more then anything else.
If I had been told any of that, I would have never taken him. I wanted a dog to use in sports, and to take downtown walking with me, things I was assured he would be great at. Not so much.
Behavior eval rolls around, and the woman looked at him, watched how he moved and behaved, and referred me to US Davies, which tests for wolf/coyote genes. It will not tell you percentages, but it will tell you if the genes are present. Yep, they were.
Third Side Note: After speaking to the person who adopted his sister, the first one placed, her first words to me were to ask if I knew that they were coydogs. Apparently she had also had her girl tested, and had made the shelter aware of the fact before I adopted Gambit. Nice little bit of brushing under the rug there!
Almost five years later (December 31!), here we are. Gambit is loved and has a reasonable quality of life. He is very securely bonded to me, and has a tight knit circle of human friends. A dozen people tops, but that's a dozen more then I thought we would get. He does accept strangers after a period of time. He has become quite dog selective, but that could well come from the BC side. He has an actual sense of humor, and has been found swinging from the rafters more then once. I love him fiercely.
That said, he will always be an animal that I do not trust with strangers. He growls at people he doesn't know and he hates children with a passion. He's a creature who is too tame to live in a sanctuary setting but still too feral to live as a normal dog. He's caught between two worlds, and he always will be.
I don't know what happened to his brothers, or if any of them are even still alive.
Sorry to write you a book (and I had to stop myself from writing more, it's a sickness, I tell you.)
Gambit with his favorite Quote:
"Faithfulness and Devotion, things born of fire and roof were his. Yet he retained his wildness, and his wiliness. And from the depths of the forest, a call still sounded"