Drag-a-Long Coyote Sr.

**Drag-a-Long Coyote, Sr.** is Droop-a-Long Coyote's father and head of the Coyote Family. He originally served as Shadybrook's sheriff before he met his wife, and later took over the town's general store, which he runs with his wife and daughter, Betty Coyote.

## Personality

In contrast to his feisty wife, Drag-a-Long Sr. possesses a serious, levelheaded disposition. can be testy sometimes, and has an explosive temper when he's finally pushed. He usually tends to keep to himself, and seems rather imposing upon first meeting, but when one gets to really know him, he's actually very friendly and easy to talk to. While he's mostly quiet, he can talk up a storm when it comes to things that he's interested in. He is very protective of all of his kids, and pushes them to pursue their dreams, although in the case of Droop-a-Long, he doesn't want him taking on a job that will get him killed.

## History

Drag-a-Long Coyote, Sr. was born in Shadybrook, and has lived there all of his life. He got his name due to his slow-moving nature; although he would outgrow it in life, he was teased for it most of his childhood. When he was twenty-two years old, he ran for the sheriff's office upon recommendation from a friend, who knew how dissatisfied he was about the town's crime rate. He served as sheriff for five years, and made at most a hundred arrests during his tenure.

At age twenty-seven, he met and fell in love with a former saloon girl from Kansas named Selena Coyote. Although she was wary of marrying him due to her former reputation, he told her that he didn't care about her former life and all that was important was that they loved each other. They married a year after they met, and Drag-a-Long still continued to serve as the town sheriff for several years.

The two had five children:

* Drag-a-Long Coyote, Jr. (born 1828)
* Hop-a-Long Coyote (born 1830)
* Droop-a-Long Coyote (born 1833)
* Sing-a-Long Coyote (born 1837)
* Betty Coyote (born 1840)

Due to his growing family, Drag-a-Long began to have second thoughts on working as the town sheriff; although the town's crime rate had gone down since he'd taken the badge, he had heard stories of how the previous sheriff, Atticus Finn, had died, leaving his three sons to grow up without a father, and didn't want that for his family. He later saw his opportunity when the owner of the general store died, and after swearing in his former deputy as the new sheriff, he and his wife took over the general store. Though they had acquired several debts to repair their home, he and his wife managed to make a decent living off of the business. He tried to get his children to help around the store, but all of them refused for various reasons, much to his chagrin.

Due to the rising crime rate (including the death of Droop-a-Long's friend, Jacob Einzbern), Drag-a-Long became convinced that the sheriff's life would kill his kids, and as such he was against Droop-a-Long becoming a sheriff. He helped Droop-a-Long get jobs at places like the livery stable, the town saloon, and numerous other shops, but his clumsiness often got him fired within a week. At the same time, he also had growing tensions with his oldest son Drag-a-Long Jr., who started causing trouble with a local gang.
When Drag-a-Long Jr. injured the sheriff during a robbery, the senior Drag-a-Long disowned him and the mayor exiled him from the town, calling him a threat. Three months after his oldest son's exile, Hop-a-Long got engaged and later left town, leaving his position at the store open, so Droop-a-Long filled in for him, although he still had his dreams to become a sheriff, which caused slight tensions in their relationship.

Drag-a-Long, Sr. would later meet the sheriff of Gopher Gulch, Ricochet Rabbit, when he was looking for a new deputy. The senior Drag-a-Long didn't trust Ricochet immediately, especially after hearing how he'd originally treated Droop-a-Long, and mostly refused to interact with him when Droop-a-Long brought him to their home. Like many, he was rather skeptical of Ricochet's friendship with Droop-a-Long, thinking that he'd use him, but upon suggestion from his wife, he decided to have a conversation with the rabbit on his second to last night there in their home. By the end of their conversation, he'd come to see that Ricochet wasn't as twisted as he'd made him out to be, and though he was wary of letting his son work as a deputy, he felt that he should let him go and live his life. He did warn Ricochet that he would come after him himself if Droop-a-Long died in the line of duty.

## Trivia

* The fact that he was the former sheriff of Shadybrook is revealed in the short Gratefulness, where he explains this to Ricochet.
* Much of Drag-a-Long Sr.'s personality is based off of iheartgod175's father and grandfather, who possess similiar traits of his.
* Drag-a-Long Sr.'s marriage to Selena is inspired by iheartgod175's family; namely, the marriage between her paternal grandparents, who despite their bickering, deeply love each other.