Meet Taco, One of the Most Important Members of our Team

Uprise Energy has a remarkable team comprised of accomplished engineers, machinists, marketing experts, fabricators, and managers. We all have a shared vision of our portable wind turbines bringing distributed energy and communication solutions to places where it is needed most. Each of our team members play a crucial role in the design and production of our turbines. Today I would like to highlight a special team member: Taco!

This is Taco:

We call him our “shop dog.” His job is to keep everyone’s spirits up and occasionally keep watch to make sure we are safe.

Taco officially belongs to Uprise CEO Jonathan Knight and family. He is a terrier mix.

Taco’s backstory

One day Jonathan was on a bike ride and he received a call from his 11 year old daughter, Kalani. While out shopping, she spotted a dog rescue adoption event put on by Viva. She spotted Taco, and it was love at first sight.

Viva (Volunteers for Indigent and Vulnerable Animals) is a non-profit dog rescue organization that provides rescue services along the west coast as well as Canada and Mexico. Taco was a dog rescued from Mexico.

Jonathan was immediately impressed with Taco’s intelligence and loyalty. The second day he had him, they went for a walk on Fiesta Island and Taco stayed glued to his side instinctively without any training needed. As an avid cyclist, Jonathan has tested Taco’s prowess on the local bike trails and true-to-form, Taco stays in close contact regardless of distractions, terrain or speed. He’s a natural trail-dog that demonstrates his loyalty and appreciation for his über-dog lifestyle every second of the day.

A day in the life of Taco

Here at the shop, Taco is allowed to roam freely without a leash. When he was first brought here, he seemed to know where he should and should not go and set his own boundaries. He can go outside if he wants to, but he sticks to the private back lot area and never tries to go out near the road in front.

Everyone at Uprise Energy enjoys having Taco around. Sometimes he encounters a door that is closed and in the way of where he wants to go. He knows that one scratch at the door and someone will open it for him. (Who has who trained?)

There was a short while where Taco’s name was not yet decided. It seemed that everyone at the shop had ideas for his name, and he spent several days being referred to by one of these names to see how it fit his personality. He spent time as Flash, Buddy, and some human sounding names. Ultimately, he became Taco, a name that gives a nod to his Mexican heritage.

A typical day for Taco involves lounging in the office, racing around the open areas of the shop, and terrorizing chew toys. He also has his own best friend. Uprise Energy shares shop space with our friends at Naturescape. Lucy is their shop dog. Taco and Lucy love to play with each other.

We are all happy that Taco is a member of the Uprise team!

Do you have a pet where you work? If so, we would love to hear about it. Let us know in the comments.