Nameless

[Nameless]

Full Name; None, considered “Nameless”
Nickname; known to some as Cujo given his breed and physical resemblence to the fictional character from a horror novel, Beethoven is also commonly used (for a similar, less violent reason). Other names given by bystanders include Iggy, Bigs, Rags and Falstaff. He currently does not answer to any of these, however. They are used only to differentiate him from other strays in casual conversation.

Species; Domestic Dog
Breed; Saint Bernard
Age; 4 years old

Status; Stray

Height; 26 inches at the shoulder
Weight; normally 155 lbs, currently starving at 75 lbs
Description; An unextraordinary stray dog, Nameless is everything that would be expected of a creature of his type. He happens to be of a large breed that many people might recognize from the movie Beethoven or the Stephen King novel/movie production Cujo, a lumbering hulking sort of animal with a large, broad head with a wide forehead and small sunken eyes, hidden in the shadows of a pronounced brow. His face is full of sagging skin, forming shallow folds in places around his drooping muzzle and behind his high-set pendant shaped ears. All usual traits for his breed.

His muzzle is not terribly upturned and his wrinkles are not too pronounced, which might indicate a mixing of breeds in his bloodline. But no one knows the dog’s parentage and Nameless certainly is not telling, so it remains a mystery where exactly he came from or what breeds exactly make up his features. For all intensive purposes he does appear to be purebred. His coat is of medium length, thick and heavy as it is supposed to be for Saint Bernards, and as per usual for the breed he sports a deep red coloration crisscrossed with large areas of white highlighting and black shading. A heavy black mask colors much of his head and face, rimming his ears, and accenting his deep rusty brown eyes, while white blazes up the middle from his muzzle, splitting the darkness between his eyes before flaring out over the top of his forehead. His neck, chest, legs and underside are also white colored, as though he’d recently waded through a deep pool of white paint. The white reaches up toward his back in some areas, forming bright towering breaks in the deep red of his markings.

Being a stray, he bears no collar, not even a flattened area of fur that would indicate he’d had one in the past, and his coat has dimmed and dulled over the years of neglect and absence of grooming. He is currently caked to the skin in mud and grime, the whites darkened to tan and his normally brilliant red-brown patches left darkened and dull, almost to black. His eyes are crusted, his nails overgrown, and his normally long luxurious fur is matted and tattered. He’d be handsome as all get out with a good bath and a brush, but as it currently stands, the dog is a hulking tattered mess of an animal, recognizeable only through his quiet, calm demeanor.

Personality; Nameless is well known among the people of Gerede for many reasons, most of which are tied to his strikingly large size. But what he’s also known for, and what also often comes as a surprise to onlookers, is his remarkably laid-back, quiet, gentle personality. Far away from Stephen King’s killer rendition of the Saint Bernard, Nameless is completely and utterly non-aggressive. He is quiet, subdued. Despite having lived among the people of Gerede for the entirety of his four years of life, no one has ever heard or seen him bark. He does whine and whimper and wibble a bit for food, making odd high pitched noises not suitable for an animal of his size, but is otherwise a non-barking dog. Some speculated for a while that he could not bark- debarking is a procedure performed by some vets that involves the cutting of an animal’s vocal cords to forever silence them. But Nameless has proven himself capable of noise in the past. He’s simply too relaxed, too nonchalant and not caring to bother with the tedious task of barking. Instead, he spends far more of his time whimpering pitifully at people for food. Having been a stray his whole life, he does not have a whole lot of trust for people, but what trust he does have comes forward tenfold if he can smell or, more importantly, directly see food in that person’s hand.

Though a beggar by circumstance, Nameless is no brute- he does not jump or snap at or bark or bite or do anything unruly. Instead, he tends to sit by café goers and waits patiently with those big brown eyes of his, licking those big droopy lips of his and muttering quietly until a morsel is dropped or tossed his way. Some might noticed that he is quite intelligent in this aspect. He’s learned through years of begging that humans are more likely to reward some behaviors with food, rather than others, and has formed a pretty good knowledge that stupid sounds and meaningless gestures of the paws are most often the ones rewarded with scraps. He has learned how to sit on command in this manner, despite never having an actual owner, and also knows shake on command as well. The hungry dog will go far and above for his food, but once edible treats are taken out of the picture, Nameless turns into something more akin to a cat than a dog. Humans do nothing more than feed him in his mind, so without food to keep his interest, he tends to wander away instead, often disappearing for days on end as he travels all over and sometimes far away from town. He is curious by nature with a love of exploration, if dogs are capable of such things, so he is often seen well on the outskirts of town, hunting small animals in the brush or chasing crabs or fish in the surf on the beach. He has a bit of an affinity for the beach.

It is worth noting however that the nameless saint Bernard disappeared from town about a year ago, with no warning, no rhyme and no reason. He was born in Gerede and, while he wandered, he was rarely gone from the town’s perimeter for more than a week or so, the town is his home. But he disappeared completely last year and only recently turned back up, tattered and starved in a way never seen before. A rope was left tied around the base of his muzzle, a make-shift halter if you will, that is loose enough that the dog can still eat and drink, but the rope is old and rayed and digs into his skin. He’s constantly seen scraping at it with his paws, unable to remove it as it also loops around behind his head. His ears are losing hair and, in the patches of baldness, one can see bloody rips and tears in them. His eyes are red and puffy and infected, his coat is torn completely out at the roots in some patches on his back, and his tail now features a permanent kink in it. Since his return, Nameless has been far more withdrawn than usual- he no longer seems comfortable sitting by the Starbucks or outside of McDonald’s where he used to lounge so leisurely. He keeps his distance from people much more than he used to and, having once been such a consistent visitor to place around town before, the populous is taking curious notice.

Likes; Baby talk (for some reason the sound is extremely pleasing to his ears), being the center of attention, any dry warm location, beaches, walks, hiking, swimming, rollerbladers/skateboarders/bikers/joggers (he is notoriously well known for jogging beside people on bikes and things), food in any capacity, cats, babies, puppies
Dislikes; Any form of smooth flooring (tile, hardwood, linoleum, etc), vehicles, high traffic areas, crowds, noisy locations, fireworks, thunderstorms, loud sudden noises

Strengths; Large size and deep set essentially red eyes makes him quite intimidating to anyone that might harm him or anyone in his presence; “gentle giant” sort of demeanor means he’s good with kids and other small animals and pets, and generally he gets along with most people that he meets; highly intelligent, he’s been semi-trained essentially on accident, he’s simply a very observant keen dog and quite contrary to the assumption about large dogs, he’s actually a very bright quick learning animal; loyal as a good dog should be, he has a tendency to never forget the people who are nice to him and he is far more likely to visit and revisit him if given the opportunity, he never forgets a moment of kindness, especially if food is involved
Weaknesses; Having always been a stray he’s not used to a lot of the weird inventions and creations that go into modern living among people- he does not like automatic doors, cars, most forms of flooring, and anything that he can see his reflection in, it all makes him jumpy and skittish and he tends to hide from these things; also due to being a stray, he is not housetrained, but he has recently been neutered in a rather sloppy and savage kind of way; he’s a little more independent than most dogs with a tendency to resist confinement, Animal Control has captured and attempted to detain him several times, and each time he’s found a way to escape, he’s simply an active dog that likes his freedom to roam a little bit; he is a large breed dog and therefore has a short life span and a tendency toward joint, heart and digestive issues, his eyes and ears also require a bit more maintenance due to problems with them common in his breed, he also drools like a faucet and sheds quite a bit

Played By; Soldier