OLiVER !

[Zephyя !?]

[ click to enlarge ]

NAMESAKE: Oliver [after his father]
PRONOUNCED: Ol-uh-ver
ALIAS: Olly [Olly Pop]

AGE: 6 years
GENDER: Male
BREED: Aïdi [Atlas Mountain Dog/Chien de l'Atlas]

FLESH AND BONES: I come in just one of about three variations of the Atlas Mountain Dog breed. My coat is very thick, a bit too thick for some of the weather here, but I live with it anyways. I don't have much choice either. I have what is considered a tri-color coat, which holds the colors brown and tawny, with white socks and chest.

I have a pinkish brown nose, and bright golden eyes with a deep brown towards the pupils. My ears are medium, and just barely folded at the top. My tail is "heavily plumed".

For my breed, I am naturally sleek and move easily around with a graceful step. Though small, I have a lot of power built into my body for herding and protecting, with a great muscular build and a one set mind.

Quick Look; 20 inches at the shoulder, 55 lbs


INSIDE THE MIND:
Protection; I am like most every other Aïdi you will ever meet. Protection is what I am built on. Anything less is unacceptable, and when I fail to guard and keep safe the ones I love the most, I have failed myself and everyone else around me, and the Aïdi breed itself. It is the soul basis and meaning to my life. From an early age I was drilled endlessly about keeping the flocks away from cliffs, steep hills, or just all in all crippling situations. If as much as a lamb cried, be it a small thorn in the hoof or a wolf eating them, it was our fault.

Dedication; Every movement I make has determination, and when I am given a task I carry it out. I do not stop until the task is done, and it is done 110% correctly. I never put things off till the next day. I believe fully in why waste the time to do something again when you can just do it right the first time and get it done with. When something or someone needs to be taken care of, I am the first on the spot, which was a trait my brothers never got.

Intellect; I under no means think of myself as a genius. I don't know many tricks. Since being away from humans for a year, I have forgotten how to communicate or understand the bastard beings all together. I am very good at getting myself and another out of bad situations, and have figured out how to obtain food and shelter quite well on my own without the help of others.

Love; I have never had luck with love, nor have I cared much for it either. I am just fine with protecting someone that isn't a lover or more then just a sibling or friends. Women have no interest what so ever in me because of my absolute dedicatio. I have had two mates before, both left because I would be driven mad with jealousy at any brute that would look their way. Potential threats. Love has never, ever had any wants to bless me with a female, and I am just fine with that. Women that are your lovers often get angry at you for the smallest things, and I don't have the patience to decode their maze like mind.

Friendship; Like with love, I have small luck at making friends. Most male strays are vicious and only looking for food and females to take. Females are hard to gain as friends, because I have found they don't like male friends without getting certain things from them. Anything else... well... I just havn't come across nice enough strays to talk to or learn to love as a friend or.. SOMEDAY mate.


history: Originally I was born on a farm somewhere way up in the mountains, far from here. It was beautiful there, and seeing as I am a bred mountain dog, I did enjoy the scenery, heights, and the grueling work us breeds sometimes had to face. My parents were just two simple herders, both Atlas Mountain Dogs. The flocks were multiplying like crazy mad, and two dogs were not going to cut it. The plan was, get atleast three pups out of my mother, then train us as soon as possible and send us after the herd.

I had three brothers; Cooper, Jackson, and Hamlet. Talk about original. They were all bigger then me, admittedly. But I had the most heart, I can say that with the utmost honesty. Every movement I make has determination, and when I am given a task I carry it out. They never took their work seriously, and were sloppy when leading the sheep to the gates. We lived like this, on that crazy little farm in the middle of the mountains, for what felt like forever. That was only the first two years of my life though.

You see, I have always wanted a little sister. Being the runt was never fun. It isn't that I want a little sister so that I am no longer a runt, it's because forever I have lived around males. They never need protection. The sheep weren't close enough to be like a younger sibling either. There were no women on the farm. I was just little Olly, running around carrying everyone's duties on my shoulders.

I wasn't stuck forever. A month or so after my second birthday a miracle named Trish and Otto. They were in their early seventies, I'm sure. Just an old couple, still crazy in love with eachother. They got lost I believe, two tourists on our mountain, and wandered across the farm where I was outside with my three lazy ass brothers.

I remember I was just pushing the sheep into the fence when their Town car cruised right up into the driveway. The farmer came out, and being as curious as ever about the new strangers I ducked under the fence once the sheep were in the gate and trotted right up to the car. I looked in to see Trish sitting there with a camera, smiling at me and snapping probably a dozen pictures. I gave her a big doggy grin in reply and let my tail go crazy.

She stepped out of the car and immediatly I was by her side, sniffing her bag, pockets, shoes, shirt, hands, whatever she would allow me to investigate. She kept giggling and saying silly things in that high pitched voice you give to puppies. I just know my tail wouldn't stop for anything, and I was in love at first sight. Otto was talking to the farmer, and after a while the woman petted me softly, then got back into the Town car, as did Otto, and they started driving away.

I wasn't done yet. I bolted after the car, chasing it down the road before they finally noticed me and skidded to a stop. Trish got out and ran to me as best as her old body could. "Oh no puppy! You have to stay at your home!" She opened the back door and I hopped into the seat, completely content to go on with them. But, Otto turned around and we were back at the farm. The farmer came out and took me to the sheep's gates.

Of course, I didn't stay. As soon as the Town car started off again I bolted under the gate and after the car. We did this about five times before the farmer through his hands up and just told them to take me. Trish was ecstatic.

After running around Greece, France, then Ireland for a month or two for the rest of Trish and Otto's vacation, we finally arrived at my new home.

It was so much better then the farm. But I didn't have any duties except to make sure the house was safe at all times. And even that was a self-assigned thing. Things were pretty boring for about three years.

Until, of course, I reached the age of five. Trish died of natural causes. That left Otto angry, and I learned that all the years I'd spent here Otto didn't actually like me that much. He kept me around only because I made Trish happy. After Trish disappeared, he fed me later and later, and refused to leave the bed to let me outside.

Finally, one day Otto got so furious with me he opened the door wide open and launched bowls and plates at me until I ran outside. He slammed the door shut. I did whatever buisness I had to do, then laid down on the porch in waiting. He never did open the door again. People would come by and drop off grocery bags at the front door, and he'd reach out a hand just to grab them, then slam the door again before I could slink inside.

Finally, I got so hungry I just went foraging through the trash cans in the neighborhood. When I was content I went back to my post on the porch, but finally just gave up when I knew it was useless now.

I turned, and started walking. I didn't stop.

I came here, and so far I have spent three months in this place, just wandering around because the food is easy to get and the people are for the most part kind. I can't stop the heartbreak, and all of me wants to go back to the farm, where I know the work is hard, but plenty, and despite the protests and whining of my brothers, they love me. I can't find my way back, though.