Shep

"It's what an alpha does," -Shep

Shep is a male German shepherd dog with golden eyes. He is the alpha of a pack that was left behind by their humans when Hurricane Katrina striked.

Appearance
Shep is a male German Shepherd Dog (GSD) with golden eyes. He has two scars across his nose which was given by Kaz. He has goldish brown fur, with black fur across his back to the tip of his tail. His muzzle is a darker brown, but not too dark, and his nose is a dirty pinkish color. Shep's legs are long which are good for running and fighting, like a german shepherd does. He has a creamish-brown belly fur. He has the markings like most german shepherds have.

Trivia

 * Although it was never mentioned, Shep and Blaze were sort of mates.

History
Shep is the main character in the Dogs of the Drowned City series. He is the narrator. In the first book, The Storm,  he is a house dog who loves Car rides, walks to the Park, playing with toys, and playing with his Boy. At the Park he would love to play with his best friend that was a boxer: Zeus. His last visit to the Park made Shep meet a dangerous wild girldog. Her name was Kaz and Shep told her to leave. She challenged him and Shep and Kaz fought. He tore her nose open, but she gave Shep two scars down his nose. One day, his Boy left Shep alone with tears in his eyes. Shep's owners dropped off lots of bowls of kibble and left the house. Shep ate all of the kibble and he grew hungry. One day he sees a pug-jack russell girldog mixed outside of his window. Her name is Callie. Shep breaks open his window and the two get out of the house. They search for kibble. Shep knows this wolf called The Great Wolf. He always prays to the Great Wolf or when something goes wrong he says, Oh Great Wolf... Shep refers small dogs like Callie as yappers. Callie one day asks Shep who the Great Wolf is. Shep tells her the story of the Great Wolf and the Black Dog. Shep and Callie find other dogs trapped inside the house. They were yappers, too. The smaller dog told Shep to twist the door knob open. As Shep tries over and over again, he begins to get exasperated. His teeth start to hurt and finally he gets the door open. The dogs were named: Higgins and Frizzle. Frizzle finds Callie attractive almost right away.Shep gets a bit jealous of Frizzle's and Callie's relationship. He doesn't like Callie more than a friend, just that Shep always wanted to be the type of dog to not be rude and be happy all the time. Besides, Callie was Shep's friend first. Shep saved Zeus from a house and Shep was glad to be with him. Shep finally reluctantly agreed to save other dogs, which was Callie's idea and of course, Frizzle backed her up. Dogs he and the others saved were Boji, Cheese, Virgil, Rufus, Daisy, Oscar, Dover, Snoop, Ginny, and many other survivors. Shep helps Oscar downs the stairs and Oscar thinks Shep is his hero. They finally find shelter for that night. Meanwhile, Shep and Frizzle compete for the leadership of the pack, and so far Frizzle is winning that role. One day, Zeus walks away from Shep's pack, and Shep refuses to go after his old friend. One day, Kaz's pack comes and goes into Shep's shelter. Frizzle is defending it, but a dog kills poor Frizzle. Shep is upset about this and fights the dogs away. Shep feels bad that all he did to Frizzle was compete was him and call him a yapper, which he was. Shep is now the alpha, but he doesn't feel like one. Callie is very sad about this. Her friend, possibly mate, had died. Shep makes a speech on what a great dog Frizzle was and what he did good for the pack. He tells Callie the rest of the story of the Great Wolf and the Black Dog. Oscar thinks Shep is the Great Wolf, but Shep refuses that he is. Later, Shep thinks of a plan to stop Kaz, the Queen of the Wild Dogs. He later sees her and challenges her to a fight. She agrees, and Shep thinks she's a tough opponent. But, Shep is the dog that wins the fight and kills Kaz. He asks Kaz's pack who else wants to challenge Shep. Then, a dog barks that he would. Turns out, the dog was Zeus! Shep begs his friend to not fight him, but Zeus's attitude has changed and he is determined to kill Shep. Then, a flood comes sweeping the shelter away. Shep gets out of the water and onto shelter. He grabs Zeus and Zeus growls and asks why is Shep saving him. He then sees Higgins drowning. Zeus says one of them will drown and one will live. Shep told Zeus that he was sorry for doing this, and drops him into the water and saves Higgins. Zeus knew he would save the yapper and calls Shep: King of the Yappers. Shep finds all of his pack and rests beside Oscar, waiting for dawn to come. In the second book, The Pack, Shep is having a dream about dogs drowning and Zeus. He is awoken by Oscar to tell him to stop kicking. Shep and his pack search for food and water and shelter. When Shep is searching for more survivors, and he finds a girldog who is a Goldendoodle and she has a cat who actually can bark! The girldog is named Honey and the cat is named Fuzz. The two are best friends and Shep said cats can't join the pack. Honey refuses to join without Fuzz, but then Shep finally allows them to join because he wants Honey in the pack. Wild dogs come and threaten to kill Shep's pack. They find a canal. Honey suggests that they swim across. And dogs/cat who couldn't swim would go on the dog who is swimming backs. Shep is swimming and Oscar is on his back. He makes it across. Daisy is on Cheese's back, and Cheese is brought underwater. Daisy makes it across. Dover explains to Shep that it was a water lizard, or some people call it gators. Cheese had died from a water lizard. Boji is depressed by this and asks Shep to say goodbyes to Cheese, like he did for Frizzle. Shep agrees and says a small speech on what a great dog Cheese was to the pack. One day, Shep finds an old bus and an Australian cattle girldog growls "Get out or get fanged!" and Shep begs for shelter. She reluctantly allows Shep's pack to stay but says to get out by sunrise. Shep walks over to the fiesty girldog and her name is Blaze. She turns out to be a kind dog and she calls Shep, "Shepherd". After this talk, Callie thinks Shep has a feeling for this Blaze dog. Shep and Blaze have a walk one day, and she explains to him about her past. Shep seems to like, if not he might even love, Blaze. She seems to like/love Shep back, since she gave him a nickname and gives Shep a lot fo good treatment and respect. She treats him the best out of the whole pack and respects him. Shep and his pack find shelter and Blaze goes in first. She fell down in the house and Shep is worried about this, yelling out her name. Blaze finds a huge room and a large bed in it. She declares it for Shep, since he's alpha. Callie argues with Blaze, saying that the sick and wounded dogs should have the dark, large, and quiet room. Shep agrees, but is upset about this. He wanted to lay down in the bed cuddled beside Blaze. Oscar asks Shep if he could sleep with him, but Shep sadly tells him he can't and that Oscar should sleep with the smaller dogs. Oscar is upset about this, but agrees. Shep sleeps in a room where large dogs sleep, right beside Blaze. More dogs have joined Shep's pack: Bernie, Jazz, Paulie, Panzer, and Ripley and lots of other dogs. Ginny and Oscar later make a story up about Shep being the Great Wolf's successor named the Storm Shaker and that the Black Dog put evil poison into Zeus's veins. Shep is freaked out about this and order that they stop. But they don't and Oscar keeps telling the pups in his group. Shep tells his pack that the stories were fake. As more dogs join, it's obvious that Shep and Callie are the main leaders of the pack, but Shep remains lead alpha. Callie one day is injured from eating a plant. He is freaked out about this and gets Higgins. Callie is left in a room. Boji, the pack's healer, is doing all she can to save Callie. Blaze tells Shep that cats have stolen food, and possibly Fuzz had been a traitor and told the cats that they had food. Shep exiles Fuzz, and Honey leaves the pack going after Fuzz. Shep knew it was big mistake when Callie fusses at him. Shep knew it was a bad idea, and he tells Blaze this. Shep runs off to search for Honey and Fuzz. Honey is dying, and she told him she had forgiven Shep, just take care of Fuzz. She told Shep that a dog named Zeus had did this to Honey. Fuzz is very depressed of Honey's death. He told Shep that he had knew Honey since she was a pup. Shep told Fuzz that he would take care of him now, but Fuzz is angry with him, but agrees to go with Shep. Later on, Shep and Fuzz become friends. Shep returns to Blaze and his pack, and Blaze told him that the pack had voted for an alpha and they chose her. She told him that Higgins and Virgil were dead. Oscar had returned, barely with his life. He told him that Zeus had killed Virgil and Higgins and that Zeus attacked him. Shep meets Zeus again and the two fight. Then, the humans return and take nearly all of Shep and Zeus's pack. Shep and Zeus are fighting, but a dart shoots Zeus, making him fall asleep. Shep escapes. They shot darts making the dogs sleep. Shep tells Callie that he would help her, but she told him to leave her. The humans would treat her. Reluctantly, Shep agrees but promises that he'd come back for her. The only dogs left of Shep's pack that didn't get shot with darts were Oscar, Daisy, Ginny, Snoop, Boji, Dover, and Fuzz. Shep tells his pack that they'll save the pack. Ginny asks just like Lassie, and Shep replies, "Just like Lassie. It's what an alpha does." In the third and final book of the trilogy, The Return, he is going to save Callie and Blaze. He, Fuzz, and Oscar find the place that the humans hold the dogs. Oscar volunteers to make a distraction. Shep isn't sure at first, but agrees. He finds Callie and sees a woman sleeping in a chair. Shep opens Callie's cage. Then, a small white fluffy puppy named Pumpkin begs for Shep to help her. He does, and all the dogs bark for Shep to open their cages. The woman wakes up, and grabs Shep. Shep knocks her over and she falls over a table. Callie is shocked of this and hated that Shep had hurted the woman that made Callie feel better. They escaped and Oscar had helped Zeus. Every dog is mad about this. Pumpkin is later training the dogs to be cute in front of the humans. She thinks Shep will be the hardest to train since he had hurt a woman. They are saying some stories and Ginny tells Pumpkin the story of Lassie, which Shep thought was an amazing tale. Later on, Oscar told Shep if he exiled Zeus, he'd go with him. Shep didn't want Zeus to kill Oscar, so he agreed, but when they slept he had to keep a distance. Callie tells Shep that Blaze was already put onto the winged-Car (helicopter) and that she was gone, so they couldn't rescue her. Shep is upset about this, but he got over it, because he had other dogs to take care of. Later on, the dogs are gathering food, and Shep and Zeus have a talk. He asks him why he is bad. Zeus replies that he is a bad dog, and that's it. While trying to find humans, Oscar is yelping for help. Shep hurries up and finds Zeus's paw in a cast has yellowish stuff coming out of it, and that his cast is ripped up. They find a wagon and put Zeus in it. Callie and Oscar look at Shep, and he sighs and pulls the wagon. One day, Boji doesn't think they shouldn't return to their humans, and the dogs are agreeing with her. Shep tells her that he was wrong and that their humans do love them. They were forced to leave. Boji finally agrees with Shep. The dogs are having their last fun before they go to their humans. The dogs are playing tag. Shep leaps into the water, and is trying to swim away from Boji. She tells him that he couldn't outswim a retriever. Then a large fish with a pointy fin on its back grabs Shep and brings him underwater. Boji saves Shep, and he thanks her. She told him that she used her anger to save him. The dogs start a chant of Boji since she saved the alpha. Later, the dogs see that the humans return. He says goodbye to his pack, and bye to Callie. He also tells Oscar he'll be as great as the Great Wolf one day. And Shep and Zeus talk. He tells the boxer that he hopes to see his friend at the Park. Zeus said he'd be there. Fuzz is now going to live with Shep. When Shep gets home, he finds that his home is broken down and he is upset. Then, he finds his Boy crying. Shep barks and his Boy is now happy and hugs Shep. Shep stays with his family and says he'll protect his Boy. It's what an alpha does. In the epilogue in the book, Pumpkin is now old and aging and she is telling pups of the story of Shep and Callie and their fearless pack. She named them the "Dogs of the Drowned City..."