Nosy

There are going to be two posts about this particular trilogy, the Farseer trilogy, by Robin Hobb, but the second will come later. For now, we have another fictional dog -- this time bonded to a guy called Fitz, who is literally a bastard. Nosy was his first companion, when he was too young to understand what his power of bonding with animals was.

"Certainly I remember Nosy. His coat was red and slick and short, and bristly in a way that prickled me through my clothes when we shared the horse blanket at night. His eyes were green as copper ore, his nose the colour of cooked liver, and the insides of his mouth and tongue were mottled pink and black. When we were not eating in the kitchen, we wrestled in the courtyard or in the straw of the box-stall."

The two of them are separated for a long time, and Fitz believes that Nosy is dead. He finds him, though, later, when he himself is grown up and Nosy is old. He's also in big trouble, but you may note if you read the trilogy that Fitz always is.

"Of one other I must speak, one dragged into that conflict and intrigue only by his loyalty to me. To the end of my days I will bear the scars he gave me. His worn teeth sank deeply into my hand several times before he managed to drag me from that pool. How he did it, I will never know. But his head still rested on my chest when they found us; his mortal bonds to this world broken. Nosy was dead. I believe he gave his life freely, recalling that we had been good to one another, when we were puppies. Men cannot grieve as dogs do. But we grieve for many years."