Shep

Shep is a powerful male German Shepherd with a fluffy black tail, a long black muzzle, tiny hairs in his ears, lean muscles, powerful jaws, and a wet nose.

Personality

 * Coming Soon

The Storm

 * Shep is having a dream of himself in the fight cage, battling the Black Dog. He is trying to block the blows the Black Dog is giving him, but he can't lift his legs. The men around him are hollering, and the other fight dogs are yelping and growling in fear. He snaps his jaws at the Black Dog's snout. His nightmare vanishes when a kind voice breaks into his suffering, and feels a hand stroke his fur.


 * Shep opens his eyes and sees his boy kneeling before him. He raises his head and licks his boy's cheek to reassure him. The boy seems comforted and retreats to his bed. Shep follows him to make sure his boy is safe under the covers. His boy tells him goodnight, and Shep thinks goodnight to him too.


 * He starts to think about many moons before he was a young pup in the fight kennel. He returns to his bed on the floor by the wall-light. He doesn't feel like going to sleep, so he drags a toy out from under a box and starts to gnaw on it to keep himself awake.


 * Each night, Shep has a dream about himself and the Black Dog in the fight cage, though he hopes it would go away. The scars in his memory were as permanent as the scars on his snout. For almost a cycle, he lived in a good den with a kind boy and the boy's kin; a tall man with a furry face and a plump woman with long, silky black hair. The boy with shaggy brown hair, was Shep's favorite. The man and woman were nice, but he loves the boy best.


 * It is now morning, and Shep is hungry. He crept over to his boy's bed and springs on top of him, licking his face. He laughs and tries to fight off Shep's gentle attack. His boy says something about Park, and Shep forgets all about his hunger, excited to go to the Park.


 * The two are walking to the Park together. His boy throws a ball at Shep, and they start playing catch. His boy gets tired, so he turns and starts speaking to another boy. Shep whimpers softly, upset that the game is over, but he wants his boy to enjoy his morning too. One of Shep's friends, Zeus, walk over to him. He boxes playfully at Shep with his front paws, and Shep leaps up, pawing at his chest and nipping at it lightly with his jowls. Zeus drops onto the dirt and raises his rump into the air, his stub wagging, and he cries the catch him to Shep, before bursting away across the Park.


 * Shep growls and takes off after Zeus. He catches up at him, and nips at his flank. He spins around and catches Shep's ruff lightly with his teeth, and they both roll into the dust. They kick at each other's bellies, and gnaw at each other's necks, and growl happily. Shep thrusts his hind legs into Zeus's belly and then springs to his pack, barking that he is too slow that morning. He digs his front claws into the grass and charges through a hedge.


 * Zeus growls and in one twisting leap, he is on his paws and chasing Shep. Shep veers around a tree and heads for the obstacle course, ducking his head and scrambles through the tunnel. As he emerges, Zeus pounces from above and brings Shep down into the dirt. He struggles to his paws and looks back at the tunnel, asking how he did that. Zeus cocks his head and responds that he went up the ramp, off the platform, and onto his head. He snarls that it was a good move. Zeus yips jokingly that he's older, so he has an excuse. Shep barks that he's older, but wiser.


 * He snaps at Zeus's stub tail, then races across a field. Zeus howls and takes off of him. Other dogs — a brown, short-haired hunting a dog, a shaggy golden retriever, and a black-and-white mutt — try to break into their play, and chase Zeus first, then Shep, but they ignored them. Zeus is noted to be like Shep's kin, the littermate he'd never known. Whenever the played, Shep sensed Zeus's movements as if they were his own. He knew how far they could take a scuffle without turning it into an actual fight.


 * They have several more rounds, and Shep and Zeus are panting hard. They take a break by trotting to a shade of a tree. Zeus sits before Shep, with his tongue lolling out of his jaws.


 * More Coming Soon

The Pack

 * Shep dreams about being in the fight cage again only with wild dogs around it instead of men.  Zeus comes up to Shep and snarls at him, but before he could attack him a river crashes in. Shep struggle against the river; seeing his friends drowning, Shep tries to go after them but fails. Shep sees the Zeus and the other dogs float up to the sky like birds.


 * Shep awakes to the voice of Oscar. Oscar tells him that he has crazy dreams and Shep agrees.


 * More Coming Soon

The Return

 * Coming Soon

Quotes

 * "You're wrong, Blaze. Strength doesn't come from attacking the weakest members, or from scaring dogs into thinking you come from the Great Wolf. Strength comes from doing what you know from your claws to your nose is the right thing. And it was wrong to blame Fuzz for something we know he didn't do."


 * —Shep to Blaze in The Pack, page 189

Trivia

 * His name Shep is shortened from German Shepherd.
 * He used to be a fight dog.
 * At first, Shep wasn't going to be a German Shepherd.
 * Though he is described having a black muzzle, on the cover of The Pack he is depicted with having a purplish colored muzzle.