The conclusion came slowly after much bandying of scientific and technical terms. Scooby was not a naturally occurring animal. He belonged to a discontinued experimental line of canids, engineered decades earlier under a government-sponsored program that no longer officially existed.
He had been designed for special companionship. Not obedience or labor, but attachment. Singular bonding. Once paired with a human, the animal oriented itself entirely around that person’s presence and emotional state. Others like him had been recaptured and disposed of. He had somehow escaped or been saved by someone.