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Angelic Hellhound

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Alternate title: the Angeldevildog

Despite said alternate title, this is not an attempt to turn Shakuro from :iconangeldevilmanga: into a dog. Instead, this is an exercise in "if Shakurao had a pet/familiar/other animal companion, what might it be?"

The idea came about when I noticed that several characters in the comic have magical pets or companions of sorts. The first that came to mind was that Rathael has his fox, Druseis. But both his siblings have pets/whatever, Felpz has Una, and Jeiko has her constant companion Karo the dragon. I thought Shakuro might like one as well.

I didn't know what kind of creature might suit her as a pet until I recalled that Kaerath had been by her side through most of the comic, and that he had been called The Hound of Hell. So a dog seemed fitting, specfically a hound, and preferably one that has long hair like Kaerath. So I looked at dogs classified as hounds, and immediately dismissed several of the long-haired breeds like Borozi and Saluki because they seemed to have a rather graceful appearance, which did not seem to suit Shakuro. She can be described as many wonderful things, but I would not say graceful is typically one of them. I eventually settled on the Portuguese Podengo, the wire haired (long haired) Medio or Grande (medium or large) variety. Podengos also come in short-haired and Pequeno (small, with short legs) varieties.

(Later when looking up references to make sure I got the horns right, I stumbled on Shakuro's bio and found that her favorite animals include dogs. Score!)

There was never any doubt in my mind that this dog would have horns, and I quickly decided on ones resembling Shakuro's own horns. That gave it a slightly devilish appearance, so it seemed fitting to add something angelic to it to match Shakuro, who's known as the Angeldevil. Adding wings seemed too blatant, I wanted something more subtle. A pale coloration seemed the best solution, though I wanted some red on it as well to match Shakuro. That reminded me of the Cŵn Annwn, spectral dogs of Welsh mythology that are commonly associated with death and the underworld, and are therefore sometimes referred to as hellhounds. (Anyone who's read the novel Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones will know where I got the idea from.) These dogs are white with red ears, which seemed a perfect coloration.

Which is how I settled on a theoretical pet for Shakuro resembling a white podengo with horns and red ears. Which does mean I just drew a couple podengos, scribbled on horns and slapped some minimal color on afterward. Not the most detailed creature, but I suppose character design isn't my strong point. ^_^; I have no idea what name, personality or even gender this dog might have, but I had fun coming up with it.
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Comments2
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GoldeenHerself's avatar
OMG! I love this, I love it so much! It all makes so much SENSE!

And yes, when I first saw this I thought it was Dogsbody fanart! XD Then I saw the horns and I was like "Ah, what?" And then I read the description, and I was like: :love:

=D

I wonder what his/her name is?

And you're right, a lot of my characters have animal companions/friends. In addition to the ones you mentioned, there's also Abharus who has Yuragorne, an alacorn. ;)