In "The Call of the Wild", a dog with this name is stolen & forced to be a working dog in Alaska
[DOC] [TLE] The Call of the Wild: Chapter 6 [PAR] Nig, equally friendly though less demonstrative, was a huge black dog, ... With 
the Judge's sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with 
the ... him back and forth, the while calling him ill names that to Buck were love 
names.