#houndpelt

Affiliations

Past: Kittypet

Current: ThicketClan

Age

77 moons

Kin

Mother: Irisdapple

Father: Unknown

Littermates: Mars, Cadbury, Lindt

Mate: Doveheart (formerly)

Daughter: Honeypaw

Deputy Position

Preceded by: Emberstar

Personality

Houndpelt was renowned within ThicketClan as being a hardworking, although otherwise average and respectable warrior. As a senior warrior, Houndpelt was generally noble, diplomatic and sensible, keeping any plans and ambitions close to his chest, but always putting ThicketClan first. Houndpelt is typically easy to get along with, that is, unless you challenge him in a way he deems unfairly (which, in all honesty tends to be most instances), but these all built up some notably leader like qualities that seemed to build up to a pretty suitable candidate for a potential deputy.

However, after being nominated as Emberstar’s first deputy, Houndpelt has revealed a drastically different side of himself, as his authority has granted him to room to be pushy and demanding, of not only his Clanmates, but of other Clans as well. Determined to put ThicketClan first, Houndpelt has exposed himself to be a wily and ambitious cat, who seems to view himself as the strong authority figure his Clan needs in light of their young and inexperienced leader. He is known to give orders without consulting Emberstar first, and encouraging ThicketClan cats to push their borders a bit. One would think that many cats would find this behavior outrageous, and some do, but Houndpelt is skilled at persuading his Clanmates and even his leader that he has only the utmost respect for ThicketClan, it’s leadership, and for the code, but chances are that he’s out to serve his own interests and ambitions.

Backstory

Houndpelt was born a kittypet, although he has almost no recollection of it beyond stories that his parents had told to him. Houndpelt was born Hershey, alongside three other kittens (a small litter by kittypet standards) to pure bred bengal mother, Iris. Iris was somewhat young and owned by beginner breeders, and was meant to be bred for purebred kittens, but escaped and became pregnant with the kits of a stray cat, though luckily for her owners, all of her children possessed passable bengal traits. Iris was agonized as each kitten in her litter was taken from her and sent to other houses, and once only Hershey was left, she made the decision to flee her home with her remaining kit. She took Hershey and left, making a home for herself in the woodlands near the Moonfalls, far away from any Twolegs that could snatch her last baby from her. 

Iris had poor hunting skills, and spent the first few days of her new life hungry. Iris worried she would run out of milk due to hunger, and just when she was worried they’d have to give up and return to their Housefolk, she encountered the first cat she’d seen in a while, a medicine cat named Spottedbelly who had somehow heard the cries of the hungry kit, and had come looking to help. He escorted the hungry family back to ThicketClan where they were fed, cared for and ultimately decided to make their home. Iris became Irispaw to denote her training, while Hershey was named Houndkit by the Clan, for his unique, spotted pelt that reminded them of the dogs they sometimes saw at the Twoleg Camp. Irispaw stayed in the nursery until Houndkit was weaned, when she started going out for warrior training, which she openly disliked, preferring to stay with her kit. Still, she eventually became a warrior earning the name Irisdapple, the Clan clearly fascinated by her foreign coat.

Houndkit grew up and was apprenticed, normally, despite Irisdapple’s constant fussing over him. However, Houndpaw, despite knowing only life in ThicketClan was aware that he was different from his clanmates, which confused him throughout his training. Cats didn’t expect him to catch onto hunting or climbing as quickly as they did other apprentices. This was a point of shame for Houndpaw, and he knew that no matter how hard he tried to blend in with ThicketClan, he would always be seen as a kittypet thanks to his telltale coat. Irisdapple, sensing that Houndpaw was self conscious of his heritage, became even more overprotective of him, aggressively defending him from even the smallest slights against him. Although he was embarrassed, and trained hard to be as good as any other apprentice in the Clan so she wouldn’t need to defend him, Houndpaw was incredibly grateful to his mother, whom he grew very close to.

When he became a warrior, there was no question that Houndpelt was a capable ThicketClan warrior, through and through, and he was respected among his Clanmates. However, early on in his life as a warrior, Irisdapple developed a lump in her belly that made her very ill, and she joined StarClan after a few moons of declining health. Houndpelt suddenly felt alone in his Clan, once again reminded that he was different than the rest of his Clanmates. He became determined to prove that he was the best ThicketClan warrior despite his heritage.

Moons later, at one Gathering, he was introduced to a MeadowClan queen named Doveheart, who was accompanying her newly apprenticed daughter, Blossompaw, to her first Gathering. He had never met or heard of either of them before, and was quickly made aware that she was once a kittypet who had fled her home with her remaining kit, after her Twolegs had taken the other kits in her litter, and joined MeadowClan, a story that was so eerily similar to Irisdapple’s that he couldn’t help but be fascinated with the pretty molly. He looked forward to meeting her at every Gathering. She didn’t seem to quite fit in with Clan life, and he enjoyed sharing experiences with her and giving her advice, and soon they were arranging secret meetings with each other. Houndpelt liked being able to be a loyal ThicketClan warrior by day, and meeting Doveheart by night, not feeling at all conflicted. That is until Doveheart informed him that she was expecting kits. His kits. Terrified about the possibility that he would go back to having his loyalty question, he snapped and told Doveheart that he would never see her again, and threatened that if she revealed the heritage of her kits in retaliation, that she, Blossompaw, and the new kits would be forced to return to exile. She complied with his demand, and they went their separate ways.

Houndpelt went back to living as a respected warrior, and felt his hard work had been vindicated when Emberstar suddenly took leadership and named him deputy. He has noticed a certain MeadowClan apprentice at Gatherings that shares some striking similarities with him, but despite how suspicious this may seem, he has yet to be questioned about it, and has no intention of calling attention to it, preferring to keep his respect, integrity, and position of deputy.

Trivia

His mother, Irisdapple was a snow bengal

He absolutely knows Honeypaw is his, and suspects she knows it too but refuses to acknowledge her or Doveheart to this day