Meet Davy Jones, the Seattle Kraken's team dog

In the hugely popular “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series, the fabled Davy Jones is portrayed as a supernatural sea captain whose job is to ferry drowned sailors to the afterlife. His most famous minion is the mythical kraken, a deadly leviathan roughly the length of 10 ships.

So, when the Seattle Kraken were deciding what to name their new team dog, Davy Jones seemed like an obvious choice. De’Aira Anderson, the team’s spokesperson, said the couple who adopted the dog came up with the idea.  

“They gave us the name ‘Davy Jones,’ and we talked about it internally with our branding team,” she said. “And obviously, Davy Jones and the kraken are always intertwined, so we were like, ‘That honestly makes so much sense,’ and we just stuck with it.”

Davy is a 4-month-old husky mix. He made his first appearance as the Kraken’s team dog during last Monday’s win over the Chicago Blackhawks at Climate Pledge Arena.

Anderson said Davy’s role as the team dog is to be a “community ambassador,” meaning he’ll appear at events with the public in addition to appearing at some of the team’s home matches.   

“We wanted to have yet another way for our fans and our community to connect with the team,” she said. “It’s another way for fans to connect with us behind the scenes in a way that’s not just coming to games or coming to practices. Davy is out in the community.”

Team dogs are not uncommon in the National Hockey League. Anderson estimated that between 25 and 28 of the league’s 32 teams have one. Traditionally, they’re trained as service animals — such as guide or medical alert dogs — and after a year or two with the team, they’re often gifted to community members who need one.

But Davy is being trained as a licensed therapy dog. Anderson said the team wanted to do something a little unconventional with Davy because he’s a rescue and because other NHL teams typically purchase purebreds to have as their team dogs. Anderson said the team is waiting on the results of a DNA test to determine what Davy is mixed with.

Once Davy finishes his training — which is being paid for by Canidae, a pet food company and Kraken sponsor — the team hopes to eventually use him at events in which a therapy dog might be useful, such as hospital visits.

Davy lives with his owners, Chris and Emily Scarbrough, in White Center. Chris Scarbrough is a member of the Kraken’s app development team. They worked with Kraken officials to adopt Davy — who was born in Texas — from Dog Gone Seattle, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving homeless dogs in high-kill shelters.

Anderson said it was important for the Kraken to adopt a team dog, rather than purchase one from a breeder.

“Just knowing that in Seattle and beyond, the rates of dogs and animals available for adoption are so high, we really wanted to go the adoption route,” she said. “It’s easy to just go find someone who’s breeding whatever dog and just buy one, but we wanted to have an impact on our community.”

Anderson said Davy will be the Kraken’s team dog for a few seasons. Afterward, the Kraken will adopt a new team dog, and Davy will get to retire.

“When he no longer is the team dog, he’ll live with Chris and Emily. He’s their dog,” Anderson said. “We’re hoping that he’ll be the team dog for a year or two, and then we’ll let him just go off and be a dog and enjoy his life with his family.”

There are 19 home games left for the Kraken in the regular season. Anderson said the team hopes to have Davy appear at somewhere between seven and nine of them. The Scarbroughs will take him around the concourse to meet fans, and he’ll likely be sporting his custom Kraken jersey or one of his Kraken dog sweaters.

As for his personality, Anderson said he’s energetic and eager to learn.

“He has a lot of curiousness. He wants to know what’s going on and likes to sniff around,” she said. “He’s a lot of fun. He likes to run around, and I think it’s fun to let him off leash in the office because he gets the zoomies and runs around and stops to say hi to everyone. … He’s a very happy-go-lucky dog.”