Porkchop the Pig drinking from the water hose.

Pecos was found abandoned on the Dillingham Ranch in Okmulgee, Oklahoma USA as a five-week old puppy with five other siblings after their mother was found dead near their den.  The puppies were mildly distressed and would have died if they had not been discovered.  Lamberton Oil Well Pumper and family confidant Mutt Wadley called me and offered me a puppy.  I immediately drove from Tulsa 30 miles/48 kilometers to Okmulgee where I spent several hours carefully interacting with and handling all of the puppies.  I selected Pecos as the puppy that reacted most positively to me in the limited time I had available.  Pecos and I were inseparable over the next few months - even sleeping together.  I would keep Pecos under my shirt next to my skin so that Pecos would feel the warmth of my body as well as internalize my scent.  Pecos and I bonded very intensely and lived together on Lookout Mountain Ranch for several years until Pecos was accidentally killed crossing a local highway at night.  The Ranch has never been as magical as when Pecos roamed the hills with my sons, with me, or on his own.  He was never caged and did not like entering buildings - unless the buildings were open on one or both ends like the barn.  He preferred the wildness of the hills and valleys around the Ranch to the confines of human habitations.  Although we formed a loving and very deep relationship, Pecos was never "tamed."  Instead, we had an agreement based upon mutual love and respect.  While Pecos gave me his love and attention; he was never domesticated.  We simply preferred being together rather than being apart.

One night I awoke on the Ranch.  I don't know what awakened me other then to say that I sensed something going on with Pecos.  I walked out on the second story deck to look out into the stillness of the night forest.  It had snowed.  The ground and trees were solid white.  The snow clouds had disappeared and the moon shined brightly in the starry sky creating a brightness to the snow on the valley floor in front of the barn where I had been sleeping in an upstairs bunk.  Out of the darkness of the forest, Pecos ran into the bright light of the moon directly towards the barn and me.  He whirled and crouched down in the snow with his head between his outstretched legs looking intently behind him.  Right behind him, several "wild" coyotes ran out of the darkness and ran straight into him twisting and turning their bodies in the snow.  At first I was alarmed.  But in a moment I understood that the other coyotes were simply playing with Pecos.  I watched Pecos and his friends frolic and play in the snow for almost an hour before they finally disappeared into the darkness of the forest.  Enriched and inspired by the events of the past hour, I turned and went back to bed.  The next morning, Pecos was waiting patiently for me when I rose.  After playing with his wild "brothers and sisters" for much of the night, he chose to return home to be with me.  I will always be indebted to Pecos for teaching me about the true meaning of the very fabric of the world in which we live.  Elements necessary for human existence like trust, love, and friendship.  He was a one of a kind and shared many mountain top experiences during the length of time we spent together on the Ranch.   I have always considered Pecos one of God's Angels.  I miss him terribly.