When a Tuscon, Arizona man saw a sign that said “Free Puppy” he jumped out of his car, knocked on the door and was determined to get himself a puppy.
And he sure did… a puppy he named Neo.
Neo was a wild sort of dog with big amber eyes and large ears. He pooped and peed all over the car whenever he was in it. But he did love his owner and only wanted to be around him all the time.
But his owner did have to leave him alone in the backyard often while he went to school and work. And Neo did NOT like that.
“According to his owner, Neo would dig out or jump the fence to play with the neighbors’ dogs,” Cate Salansky of Wolf Connection told The Dodo. “He built a higher fence to help contain him, but Neo chewed through it and continued to escape.”
This is because Neo was searching for his pack.
This is because he wasn’t your standard domesticated dog. He was what is referred to as a “high content wolf dog,” which is a mix between the two species. These creatures are characterized by their amber eyes, coarse coats, and long lanky bodies.
Some states prevent people from keeping these kinds of animals as pets. The neighbors had suspected something strange about Neo.
He would avoid eye contact and didn’t like the treats that their dogs would go crazy for.
They eventually got sick of Neo breaking into their yard so they drove him to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. They figured he would stay there until they could work out a solution with the owner.
“One morning, before our animal welfare campus opened to the public, I was outside with another staff member,” Maureen O’Nell told The Dodo. “I saw a couple walking a long-legged canine to the front door. It wasn’t his body composition that made me notice, but his behavior. Neo was completely avoidant of human interaction. The couple walking him seemed, as best as I can describe it, perplexed.”
Though the neighbors weren’t sure why Neo was behaving this way, O’Nell did.
“I approached the couple and asked, ‘You know that isn’t a dog, right?'” O’Nell said. “They responded, ‘we were wondering.'”
Arizona is one of the states that doesn’t allow wolf-dog ownership.
Unless you are Native American or have a special permit, O’Nell reached out to Wolf Connection to see if they would take Neo. Neo’s owner agreed that this is what would be best for him.
And it was! Now Neo has found his pack and gets to live his life like a wolf at their sanctuary. Check out the video below of Neo meeting his first wolf friend. He’s so excited it’s so cute!
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