Conversations with Adam Brody

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Brody.

Hi Adam, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Our Pekingese Journey

Part 1 – Huck: My wife and I decided we wanted to share our life with a dog. After looking at pictures of dogs at a local rescue we picked our Huck. He was a little boy who spent the first 2 plus years of his life at a puppy mill/rescue. On adoption day Huck was running around. Not because he was excited. He was scared of everything, all he wanted to do is hide. When you get a dog you have thoughts on how it is going to be…friendly, playing fetch, chewing on everything, etc. Huck was none of those things. I’m not sure Huck knew how to be a dog. The people at the rescue even brought another Pekingese they had because Huck was so skiddish they thought we might not take him. They were wrong. We knew at first sight that we were meant to love him.

Part 2 – Tom: We had Huck for about 2 weeks when the rescue called us. They asked if we could foster a Pekingese that needed antibiotic ointment applied to one of his eyes twice daily. We agreed. Hustle (as they named him) was a 2-year-old from a kill shelter in Kentucky. You could tell right away he had been someone’s pet before. He was well socialized, playful and mischievous. In many ways the polar opposite of Huck. What amazed us was that Hustle was actually teaching Huck what it meant to be a dog. Huck would get a little confused why, at times, he felt like Hustle’s personal chew toy but eventually he learned that is all a part of playtime. Given Hustle’s impact on Huck, there was no way we were letting him go. We decided his name should be Tom because of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Tom was our very first “foster fail”. Tom deserves equal credit for rescuing Huck. We couldn’t have done it without him. Around this time I would occasionally post picture of the 2 boys with funny captions on them.

Part 3 – Stink: After several months with just Huck and Tom, the rescue again asked us to foster a Pekingese over the Christmas holidays. He was another one of the 2 dozen male Pekes the rescue bought at auction. Of course, we agreed. When we picked him up, to put it mildly, he smelled! We ended up giving him 3 baths in the first 2 days. The rescue called him Cloudberry. I don’t recall what we tried to call him in the beginning. All I can tell you is the name that stuck was “Stink”. He was a lot like Huck in many ways just not as severe. We fostered him for 3 months. After 1 failed adoption meet-and-greet, he was eventually adopted by a lovely couple who were replacing a Pekingese that looked like him. He was a great fit for their family. My wife cried when Stink left. We knew fostering increases the chance for adoption but we were not prepared for the emotional price of foster succeeding.

Part 4 – Max: The day we took Stink back to the rescue for his forever adoption was the day we met Blueberry. He was the last of the 2 dozen male Pekingese 2-year-olds sent to the puppy auction by a puppy mill in Minnesota. Wow, he was gorgeous! How on earth was he the last one to be chosen? Of course, the rescue owner wanted us to foster him until he was adopted. Max was sweet and gentle. Not scared of everything like Huck but not particularly outgoing either. It was another 3 weeks before we actually took him in because I was heading out of town for work. Blueberry was not a Sleeve but was small (12lbs) compared to Huck and Tom. When trying to come up name to call him while we fostered, the wife suggested the opposite of what he was, not tiny but Max. Max was also the name of my beloved boyhood dog and they shared a similar color scheme so it felt right. We knew we had a 2nd “foster fail” on our hands. Turns out all 3 boys are close to the same age (Tom’s age is an approximate). We had adopted 3 rescue Pekes within a 9 month period. With that the “TriPekes” were born and I began posting on social media daily captioned photos. We thought it was a cute twist on the solitaire game called TriPeaks. We have since renamed our account PekeTales but still use the #TriPekes hashtag today.

Part 5 – Cesar: With 3 Pekingese boys, we dove head first into the Pekingese community. What wonderful people. We would occasionally see a picture of an albino Pekingese and were just mesmerized. We told ourselves if one were ever to become available in rescue we would consider expanding our crew. In 2014, after a year and a half of off-and-on searching on Petfinder, we found this blue eyed albino Peke in South Carolina. At 16 months old he was half the age of the TriPekes. Once the arrangements were made Tom and I took the 750 mile drive. They both got along well enough during our visit so we brought him home. I drove over 1500 miles in 26 hours. That was 1 very long day. We struggled coming up with a name. Given his appearance we considered Casper, Cotton, and even the words for “white” and “snow” in various languages. None of them felt right. Since we had a playing card theme nickname going for our 3 Pekes we tried Joker. We loved the concept but actually calling him Joker felt awkward. My wife came up with the idea of naming him after one of the actors that played the Joker from Batman. After reviewing the names we chose to name him Cesar after Cesar Romero, who played the Joker from the 1960s Batman TV series. Cesar is guarded when it comes to strangers and kids. He takes a ‘bark first, ask questions later’ approach. Over the years he has really gotten better. Now after a short adjustment period he relaxes when my daughter family stops by. Cesar was honored to be selected as 1 of 15 dogs to get their #15SecondsOfFame by appearing on a Station ID video for the DogTV Network.

Part 6 – Koko: In 2017, we saw a few Chocolate Pekingese on social media and became enamored. We prefer adopting rescues over breeders (just our preference) and told ourselves if one were to ever come up we would expand our pack one last time to 5. We already knew his/her name would be Koko. Being that a Chocolate Peke is even rarer than an Albino, we doubted we would ever see one. I had actually never seen one on Petfinder or Facebook Rescue pages before. No sooner had we decided to open our home to a Chocolate Peke, than we actually saw 4 within 3 weeks. How amazing was that! “A968229” was the third one we saw, a Sleeve Peke turned in as a stray in Las Vegas. A big heartfelt thanks to Steven Walker of the Facebook group ‘Pekingese In Need’. He had posted her rescue information even before it appeared in search results on the animal control facility’s website. We called on a Friday and asked if they could hold her for us the soonest I could get there was Monday. They apologized saying they don’t do holds. Since Saturday was an adoption day, they suggested I call back 15 minutes before closing time to confirm she was not adopted. That seemed like the longest 20 hours of our lives. I booked a flight leaving Sunday, returning on Monday. Koko was in rough shape for a 6lb senior (they estimated 10 years old). Even though she was malnourished, severely matter and had cloudy eyes she has plenty of love to give. After spade, dental cleaning and a shave (to remove half a pound of matted fur) we rescued Princess Koko. She gained weight, grew stronger and with proper nutrition the cloudiness in her eyes vanished. Today she is the healthy Queen Peke of the household.

When we rescued baby Koko we tried “TriPekes and the Joker with Koko” for a year but that was a mouthful. Another consideration for our Social Media name change was this, we had been adding a name to our Social Media name with every new fur-monster. Would we eventually remove a name when it is their time to cross the rainbow 🌈 bridge? Just the thought of that was heartbreaking. For several weeks we weighed the merits of names like PekePals, Pekeolicious, PekeGang, QuintPekes, PeekToons and a handful more. In the end, we decided on Peke Tales as they are Pekes and our captions tell stories.

We started our Pekingese family in August of 2012. Regardless of what time brings our way, we see our future with at least 1 Pekingese by our side. OK, maybe 2. Now that We think about it 3. Then again ♾ …

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Our first boy Huck was quite a struggle.

The rescue told us he was from a group of over 2 dozen male Pekingese that a puppy mill recently dumped at an auction for $25 each. On adoption day Huck was running around the room. Not because he was excited and playful but because he was scared, of everything. All he wanted to do was hide. Although he was not aggressive you could tell he trusted no one or anything. 7 The rescue had actually brought one of their other Pekingese with them. They knew that Huck’s behavior was the kind of thing that would scare off potential adopters, but not us. The way we looked at it, Huck was in more need of being adopted than of them. We fell in love with that little boy on the spot and took him home. Although he took to my wife first, Huck was slow to trust either of us (which we expected). We were amazed though at how quickly he took to house training. Almost as if it was the one thing he had control over and would do for us as a thank you for getting him out of “the system”.

One of the things we noticed about Huck was the position and activity of his tail. It was just there. He never put it up, never placed it between between his legs and was not really moving it much. It wasn’t until his 6th week with us that I actually saw him lift and wag his tail. I remember it vividly. It was in the morning. I had gotten up to let him out. When I asked him if he wanted to go “out” he turned, lifted and wagged his tail. I was so excited to see this I actually woke up my wife so that she could see it too. Needless to say there were a few tears of joy shed on that day. Whether it is chew toy or special treat Huck had no interest in chewing on anything.

Huck is a very busy boy. Even to this day, he pays attention to everything that happens within eye or ear shot. You can see him assess things happening around him and plans his next move (more like an escape route). I cannot count the number of photos of Huck doing something cute that I missed merely because I had to move my arm to take the picture. If you approach him with anything in your hand his first action is to retreat. It doesn’t even matter if the item in your hand is a treat for him. Speaking of treats, he is not motivated by treats so training him can be difficult. Huck suffers from sound adversion and is easily startled by unexpected noises. He even startles himself sometimes when the tag on his collar hits his food dish.

During the first 4th of July celebration with our boys we thought about the potential issues the noise of fireworks would bring. True to form our nervous Huck was beside himself when our neighbors decided to do a dry run on July 3rd. We had considered buying him a Thundershirt but weren’t sure if that would help as most of his issues seemed to be related to the lack of social development as a puppy. Seeing his initial response to fireworks we immediately put him in a 12 month kid’s tank top we had in the closet. Although it didn’t prevent Huck from wanting to find a “safe” place, we did notice it seemed to calm him a bit. The next morning when I got up to let them out something seemed off. There was no barking and no excited jumping against the gate waiting for it to be removed. Usually when I get up in the morning to let them out they are all very excited. Huck was always the most vocal, standing on his hind legs with his front paws on the gate and barking. However, with him still wearing the shirt from last night Huck was approachable. It seemed he could actually relax a little. Based on how we came to know/love him, Huck now seemed eerily calm. Huck wears a shirt a lot of the time as it seems to make him feel less scared.

When we find ourselves a little frustrated by Huck’s quirks we just think about how scared he was before coming into our lives and the progress he has made. We are so proud of how Huck battles his fear every day just to socialize with the world. He even approaches the grandkids to get his share of tummy rubs.

I don’t think Huck will ever stop being afraid. He struggles through his fear every day to love us. He is the bravest boy we know. He has become a loving member of our family whose cuddles and kisses are very precious.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a full time IT professional by trade so I have some technical skills that come in handy when a photo needs correcting or editing. That really came in handy the first few years when it seemed all I could get were casual photos. I couldn’t get them to pose for photos and some were not treat motivated to be bribed. Since most of the photos were casual shots, I was able to catch looks, expressions and funny faces. All I had to do was look at the photo and it would tell me what the captions should say.

What really sets us apart from the thousands of social media pet accounts is our comic-style captions on the photos. I came up with the idea of adding captions to the photos because I thought that most people were like me…I would see pet photos posted on social media but I didn’t really take the time to read the words they wrote as part of their post. And if people were like me, they would miss the funny phrases or comments I would make. However, if the captions were on the photos themselves, they had a greater chance of actually being read.

It is hard to believe we have been doing daily posts since 2013. We have made several videos over the years that still bring me joy when I see them re-shared. I am especially proud of the fundraisers we did where we were able to donate hundreds of dollars to several different dog rescues.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
There are actually 2 (and I haven’t always been able to achieve both, especially in the beginning).

Good lighting for photos is extremely important. Second would be the funny things the dogs would say on the photo.

Contact Info:

• Email: Peketales@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Peketales/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PekeTales/