Russell

## Description

Russell's fur is coal black, with a white nose bridge. He's an average sized cat, although his kittypet lifestyle has diluted his potential muscle. Being a cat that lives right on the water, his fur is usually full of sand. A fishhook is stuck through his left ear, something done accidentally but his owner found "cute" and kept. Russell does not have claws, although he is not de-sexed.

## Personality

Russell, being a kittypet, hasn't tasted much of agency and freewill in his life. As a result, Russell does all he can to take that agency back, such as defend his "turf." Russell is somewhat sleazy and opportunistic, and will extort loners in his "turf" and make them catch prey for him, since he has no claws. Russell has an obsession with the outside world, and lets cats stay in his owner's boat house in exchange for telling him stories about the outside.

This has gifted Russell with a fairly accurate understanding of Gang cats, loners, and even Clan cats (to a certain extent). His views of these groups are still colored by the typical kittypet bias, such as the belief that Clan cats eat eachother. Russell deeply wants to go out and explore the forest, but since he has no claws, he knows it will be a death sentence. So, Russell tries to remain content, rotting on the edge of nothing.

## History

Russell was born one rainy evening to an outdoor she-cat, Helen. He was raised by the she-cat without knowing who his father was, something he didn't complain about. Russell's kithood was pretty uneventful. He would walk the beach during the day, something that was once fascinating to him.

Eventually, he was de-clawed. At the time he didn't realize how much he'd miss them.

Around apprentice-age, his mother started to open up to him about his ancestry. Helen told Russell about the forest cats. Her father, a tom named Sammy, was once one of them. His former name was Sunpaw of DustClan, but his father, Sandswallower, kidnapped him and took him to the Twoleg Place when DustClan went through a terrible greencough outbreak (the same one that killed Vixenstar).

Although Russell expressed interest in going there, Helen warned him never to. Helen strengthened her argument against it by mentioning his own father, who was apparently a Clan cat. Helen said they had a cold-hearted nature, that they would much prefer indulge themselves in their wild ways than raise their own kit.

At some point in his young life, Helen went to the vet and never came back. Russell asked around to see if any other cat had seen her, but most suggested that she had been put to sleep. Russell tried to reconcile with this, but something died within him. He felt completely and totally powerless. Death could come to him as suddenly and as unjustly as it had his mother, and he'd be unable to stop it.

Since then, Russell wandered the streets. He did it half to pretend he's wild and free, and half to seek out knowledge about the outside world. He deeply wanted to explore, but given he was without claws, it would be dangerous for him to do so.

Then he learned he had a stomach tumor. Soon, his owner would try and put him to sleep too.

As a young adult, he had met the kittypet Anna. He'd become fixated with her, since she has claws, and seemed to have a curious eye. Soon thereafter, the two embarked on a journey to find Wilowchaser, his father. During the journey, Russell's tumor started to make him more ill. They came upon DustClan, hidden as SeaClan with ReedClan. There he met Clayfur and Forestwatcher, and learned that his father had died in The Society's invasion of DustClan.

Russell, knowing his death was soon, realized that he wanted to fight to protect his father's Clan. He wanted to join StarClan when he died, and so he trained to become a warrior alongside Anna. After the major battle with The Society, Russell resolved to die in DustClan.

He and Anna had a litter of kits, Willowkit, Hookkit, Peachkit, and Songkit.