Rocket the Carolina Dog:
A Resilient Survivor.
Rocket is a Carolina Dog - a breed also known as the "American Dingo" and what some call "America's Only Wild Dog".
About Rocket: An Example of America's "Only Wild Dog" and the Former Spirit of Hampton Park
When we lived at the house in Wagener Terrace in downtown Charleston - the one at the center of the lawsuit this website tracks - Rocket was the intrepid adventurer of the neighborhood, nearby Hampton Park, and Downtown Charleston in General.
Every day, rain or shine, we walked the paths of Hampton Park - circling due to its history as Washington Race Course, an oval horse racetrack in the 19th century - because Rocket wouldn't let us off the hook. He needed his adventures and let us know with a "snout toss" of a human arm or leg. And he didn't just "walk"; he proudly patrolled, as if he was King of Hampton Park. Maybe he was, in a sense.
That "snout tossing" is apparently a relic of his ancestor's burrowing tendencies - they use their snouts to dig into the ground, a Carolina Dog idiosyncrasy Rocket exhibited, like how he howled with the saxophone on Van Morrison's Moondance and followed people to the bathroom, sitting outside to guard a fellow pack member during a vulnerable moment as his ancestors did, to the amusement of our friends.
He was our constant shadow, accompanying us to outdoor cafes, joining us on shopping trips, and resting at my feet while I worked or played guitar. In a city of history, he was our personal connection to a wild past long predating the settling of Charleston by the English in 1670.
Rocket is a Carolina Dog - or American Dingo - carrying the DNA of ancient canines whose origins in the Americas stretch back far longer than the European settlers who brought in breed such as Mastiffs and Greyhounds. That history is written in his ginger coat , attentive ears, and his intense, yet kind and soulful eyes that seem to continually be both smiling and mournful, as if for a way of life lost.
He is a survivor by nature, a "living fossil" of the American Southeast, and that resilience has continually amazed us, even as he lost his sight the last few years.
About the Carolina Dog
Rediscovered and documented in the 1970s by Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Carolina Dogs are characterized by their dingo-like appearance, fishhook tail, and self-sufficient, pack-oriented behavior, existing as a "pariah dog" or landrace shaped by natural selection, not human breeding.
The distinctive characteristics of the Carolina Dog breed are those that confer survival advantages under free-ranging conditions in the remaining remote areas of tall grasslands, bottomland swamps, deserts, and forest habitats of the southern United States.
The Carolina Dog was recognized by the United Kennel Club on January 1, 1995.
Before everything changed, Rocket was the enforcer of our walking routines. He was our constant shadow, accompanying us to outdoor cafes, joining us to go to Blue Bicycle Books for something to read or to Record Stop for some vinyl to listen to. And he was almost always smiling, except now when he winces when he eats, because he needs dental surgery. More on that in a bit.
As he aged and his sight faded, our home on Gordon Street became his sanctuary. We built a world he could navigate by memory - a mental map of safety where he knew exactly where the walls were and where I had placed a step so he could get up on the couch he had claimed as his bed.
He didn't need working eyes to know he was loved; he felt it in the stability of his environment.
The Move That Broke the Sanctuary
When we got the Notice to Vacate - seemingly out of the blue during good-faith lease negotiations - that stability was stolen from him. The forced move took his map. We ended up in a house picked in a hurry, one that was packed high because it had been furnished and we had our own furniture, so didn't need that - but there wasn't time to empty it ahead of us getting in. Rocket ended up getting stuck under a couch, whimpering for hours, making a noise I first thought was a squeaky AC bearing but now I will never forget - until I found him and threw the couch to the side to set him free.
He is learning to navigate the new place, but his battles aren't over. Now, watching this proud, ancient spirit wince in pain because we now cannot afford his dental surgery due to the high costs of the disruption to my business and the ongoing legal fight against multiple defendants and law firms, is the hardest part of this fight.
We aren't just fighting for tenant rights and respect for pro se litigants; we are fighting for the dignity of Rocket and all vulnerable beings who depend on a stable environment.
Please help us help Rocket and help all future tenants to stand on their rights: Click here to donate and please share our story far and wide.