Mirror's idea of charity might have been a tad different from... well, the general idea of charity.
The main reason for that was that s/he still had almost no money at all to spend, let alone to donate. That was why s/he usually found new and creative ways of doing something good for the world.

When Maya came across the animal shelter just outside of town, it didn't take long for her helpful side to wake up from her Sleeping Beauty slumber, and get to work.
This is how it happened that one quiet summer afternoon, when very important things might or might not have been happening somewhere downtown, Sir Gawain knocked on his sister Emerald's door in the Mansion, with a fully stuffed backpack on his back that smelled curiously like hot dogs and dog food.

"Hey, Ems. Got some time for me? I kinda need a ride."

Emerald had been isolating herself from others since she had come back from Florida. While she was getting used to being around people again, it was taking her a bit to get that already fragile trust back with others. Mirror seemed one of the few people that the wolf girl would talk to. So when she heard the knocking at her door and then the voice of her friend, she opened it, willing to give her friend a ride.

"Yeah sure, bikes in the shop though, we are gonna have to use my truck. Unless of course you want to use Ruby's experimental vechiles. Though, shes probably gonna use me as a crash test dummy anyways," Emerald laughed a little at her own joke. She was gonna be a crash test dummy alright, she knew it probably wasnt that smart of her to let her baby sister test some of her nutty inventions on her, but she had yet to be seriously wounded so she saw no harm in it.

Emerald then caught a scent of something as she exited her room, wearing her normal garb along with a new dog collar that Sapphire got her for her birthday this year. The wolf girl went behind the mirror mancer and sniffed his backpack, a typical wolf thing to do. "Gawain, why do you have dog food and hot dogs in your bag? I would have given you a ride anyways you don't have to bribe me."

>>"Yeah sure, bikes in the shop though, we are gonna have to use my truck. Unless of course you want to use Ruby's experimental vechiles. Though, shes probably gonna use me as a crash test dummy anyways,"

Good, there is someone up there after all, looking out for me.

"Truck's fine Ems" Gawain grinned. He had no hopes of the wolf girl being a better driver in a truck than she was on a bike, but the truck did sound a bit more... safe. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe.

>>"Wy do you have dog food and hot dogs in your bag? I would have given you a ride anyways you don't have to bribe me."

Another grin.

"'tis not for you Ems. But ya can have a bite if you want to." he chuckled "You'll see when we get where we're going. C'mon."

Without even saying a word, the middle Lupin child reached into the bag and scooped a hotdog out of it, taking a chance to munch on it. Wether it was raw or cooked, any kind of meat or meat bi product was A-OK for Emerald. Well normal meat anyways, wet dog food grossed her out. Besides, she needed to stay fueled somehow and she didn't run on gasoline like her vehicles did.

"Alright, but there better be a good reason you are hauling around that backpack." Emerald told her friend, leading him out to the large, gently used (but new to Emerald), green truck. Luckily, Emerald drove far safer in the truck, which was odd for her, perhaps something happened in a truck the last time she drove recklessly. Whatever the reason they got to the location with minimal cops having heart attacks. Once there, Emerald stared at the young Mirror Mancer. "Your'e voulentering at an animal shelter? I would'nt peg you for the type."

(let me though if this post is okay, i think may have inadvertently godmodded since we know where the story is going.)

>>"Your'e voulentering at an animal shelter? I would'nt peg you for the type."

Gawain rolled his eyes, getting out of the truck.

"I'm not volunteering for anythin'. I'm more like... sneakin' food for the dogs. Came across this place the other day, an' they didn' look like they had enough money to feed the dogs properly."

Walking around the building that seemed closed at the moment, they got to the fence of the backyard; barking and yapping could be heard from the other side of the fence. Gawain walked up and down along the fence, looking for a way to go in.

"Thing is, I don' have much money either. So 'tis kinda a Robin Hood thing: stealin' from the rich, givin' to the runts. Or somethin' like that." he grinned, adjusting the backpack on his shoulder. The dogs inside must have smelled the food, because the sound of barking increased in volume and number...

Emerald was down with the whole stealing from the rich and giving to the poor thing. After all, that was what Ilari did on a regular bases, stole from the rich and gave to his ailing mother and sister. Em was all for Vigilante justice, hell she was a vigilantes herself in and out of costume. The wolf girl stalked around the wooden fence, trying to find some sort of hole to get in.

"This shouldn't be too hard to get in, I've scaled a fence with bared wire on it with no shoes before I'm sure I can get through this." Emerald told Gawain, before she began to get irritated with all the dogs barking. A low Snarl escaped her lips and she shifted into wolf form letting out a low bark snarling bark, that probably would have sounded like something on the lines of "Be quite" in dog. The dogs got quite and the wolf girl shifted back into her human form now noticing that there was a gate with a lock on it nearby, a shotty lock at that. "

"Wow really? I guess they really are having a hard time here." Emerald grumbled, merely "Lightly" Ramming the lock with her shoulder, cuasing it to fall off and the gate to swing open. It lead to an open yard where some of the dogs where in pens running around clamoring for attention. . "I keep forgetting that dogs like me " The wolf girl smiled a little, tail wagging back and forth.

Gawain chuckled as he watched Emerald go all she-wolf on the barking dogs, and stood back to let her take care of the gate. He wondered for a moment how they were going to fix that, but it was already open, so he decided he'd have time to muse about that later.

Walking in, the young knight looked around before turning back to his sister.

"Close the gate Ems, some of them are..."

And that was as far as he got before half a dozen dogs of various sizes and colors surrounded him from every direction, jumping up for the sweet smelling backpack, yapping and barking and wagging tail merrily. They were all shaggy and their fur covered in dust.

"Yeah, I see ya'll could use some more money an' food around here..." Gawain frowned, holding up the backpack before he opened it, sending all the dogs into barking fits. He distributed some hot dogs to the ones running around just to get rid of the crowd.
It was only a temporary solution.

"Ems, here" he called out, pulling a bag of dog food from his backpack and tossing it at the wolf girl "Don' snack from it please."

Gawain went around, handing out hot dogs, sandwiches and dog food to the occupants of the pens, stopping very one minute or two to deal with the ones who ran free, coming back for more food.

"I bet they don't expect this, someone breakin' out and givin' food to their dogs..." he chuckled, winking at the wolf.

Emerald took the dog food bag and glared a little at her adopted sibling. One time she is caught munching on dog food during a wolf moon and suddenly its her favorite cuisine. With a small grin she went around filling the dogs bowl, causing them to all happily clamour about and playfully pull at her clothes and nip at her, until she sent them a quick growl, making them quite down. It seems that living among other dogs gave these dogs a pretty good idea at what an Alpha was.

The Next task though, no ammount of preparing or the like could prepare her for. Emerald stepped into the largest pen, dogfood bag in hand and was quickly mowed down. "ACK!" Was all that was heard before dozens of high pitched bark and yips echoed throughout the entire yard. "Ragh! Gettoffme! HEY! I am not built for that until I have pups! GET OFF!" Emerald was in a loosing battle though, even when she morphed into her wolf form, she was no match for the sheer amount of cuteness of a dozen puppies wanting love and cuddles from her. While she did manage to assert her dominance so they wouldnt try to bite her, the large black and red she wolf was currently being used as a mountain as all the pups climbed over her, played around her and occasionally nipping her tail, earning a growl from her.

>>"Ragh! Gettoffme! HEY! I am not built for that until I have pups! GET OFF!"

"Ems, you all right?" Gawain dropped the rest of the food into the last bowl, and ran back to the pen where the yelling came from. He was relieved to see there was no imminent danger... just a dangerous amount of cuteness. And a she-wolf being run over by puppies.
Gawain grinned.

"Ems, ya gotta find a guy an' get down to havin' pups 'cuz ya look a-do-ra-ble." he laughed. Some of the pups bounced over to him to snif at his feet, but apparently the girl smelled more like a mother, and more like food too, so he was quickly abandoned again.

Except for one runt. That one stayed, digging tiny sharp teeth into Gawain's pants and pulling on it ferociously, growling all the way.

"Hey!" Gawain reached down to pick the pup up by the scruff; it held on to his pants with a determined and constant growl, until he managed to carefully shake them free. The pup hung in mid-air, still growling. It was a little bit bigger than the others, but more scrawny too, with legs like sticks, and funny big nose and paws.

Gawain smirked, and growled back.

So..Many...Puppies Emerald thought as the puppies clamored over her some more. The She-wolf moved over to the other side of the pen, and all the puppies followed her, letting out longing whimpers and whines as they pawed at her, trying to get her to lay down again to they could play. Briefly, Emerald thought about what Gawain said, about settling down and getting a mate with pups of her own. Briefly, she thought of a nice male wolf, with light colored fur making it look like its almost blonde, with a scent very similar to that of a certain Light Mancer, pressing his nose against hers. Emerald blinked back into reality and noticed the pups were still clamoring about trying to get the she wolf to play with them.

Emerald rolled her eyes and nuzzled them over to the empty food bag she spilled, trying to get them to munch on that for a bit. The Female shifted back as the puppies briefly got distracted, going over to munch at the food she had dropped. Her human form looked a little bit frazzled, her hair sticking out on all ends and her clothes all mussed up.

Emerald glanced over at Gawain and let out a small laugh, shaking her head at him. "Don't growl at the pup, you aren't even remotely alpha enough to pull that off." Emerald told her friend with a playful grin.

>>"Don't growl at the pup, you aren't even remotely alpha enough to pull that off."

Gawain rolled his eyes and set the pup back down on its funny big paws; once it was on ground level once again, the runt immediately re-attached itself to the bottom of his pants and shoelaces.

"No! Bad dog!" the mirrorwalker growled again, shaking his foot, but careful not to kick the little creature. "All right, Mother Wolf, once ya're done feeding those, what the heck should I do 'bout this one? I think he's got a weird taste when it comes to food..."

Gawain never had a dog, or a pet of any kind. Ever. It was hard enough for Mom to look after a gender shifting child; they moved around a lot, traveled, and sometimes went into hiding, they didn't have the energy to drag a pet along, no matter how sometimes li'l Maya/Gawain wanted a puppy, a kitten, a turtle, or... anything, really. And after Mom went missing, s/he was too occupied with taking care of him/herself.

Long story short: if Gawain had any idea about dogs at all, he'd learned it from experience. With Emerald.

The She-Wolf rolled her eyes, shifting into her wolf form once again. She walked over to the young pup and gently pried it off of Gawain's leg by the scruff, holding the pup in her maw gently. Emerald placed the pup down and then rolled it over on its back, letting out a low growl, looking menacing, which the pup actually listened to. The little pup whimpered and stayed on its back as the she wolf chekced something very important. With a quick lick to the cheek the she wolf picked the young pup up again, before shifting back., placing the pup in Gawain's arms.

"It's a girl, she is about 9 weeks old, her ears look fine and shes fairly healthy though still get her checked at a vets office." Emerald explained, basically telling Gawain that since the puppy liked him he was keeping it. "She made a connection with you that a lot of dogs make with the person they want to be their owners so make sure you treat her right, assert dominance but Dont be too harsh, remember shes just a puppy and if i ever see you swatting her I will break you legs."

Emerald went to the other puppies, stopping them from gorging on the whole bag and served it to the other animals. The Puppies all looked crushed that the She Wolf wasn't going to stick around, but they quickly got over it when they realized that they could tip over their food bowl and stand ontop of it. Leaving the Puppy Pen, the she wolf fished out of her pocket a 20 dollar bill and left it next to the pen.

"You are gonna come back when they are open and adopt her officially so she can be registered alright?" Emerald looked at Gawain with the mama wolf protecting her brood eyes. Which were awfully terrifying.

>>"It's a girl, she is about 9 weeks old, her ears look fine and shes fairly healthy though still get her checked at a vets office. She made a connection with you that a lot of dogs make with the person they want to be their owners so make sure you treat her right, assert dominance but Dont be too harsh, remember shes just a puppy and if i ever see you swatting her I will break you legs."

Gawain stared at Emerald over the pup in his arms that apparently decided being up there was not all that bad, since she could pull on the straps of the backpack.

"She's... wha... but... but I... how..." blink "What?!"

He looked down at the puppy. She (if Ems said she was a she, he was ready to believe her) did look kinda adorable, in a skinny shelter dog kinda way. For a moment he thought about refusing to take her home; were they even allowed to...
... Sam had a dog. And a cat.
He should ask Speedy about this.
And Calley.
And Twyla.
And Flipsy.
...
To hell with the rules anyway.

"All right, all right." he nodded "I'll adopt her fair and square, jus' don' go all Alpha wolf on me, 'kay? Geez." he rolled his eyes "I really didn' come here to take one home."

The pup whined, and attempted to turn around in his arms. Gawain almost dropped her as she wiggled. She had some weight, despite how skinny she looked.

"...Geez."

I win. Emerald thought coyly as she gave the dogs the last few pets and a few growls as well when the tried to bite at her legs. They were somewhat ill behaved but nothing a good Alpha couldn't fix. If she played her cards right she could possibly visit these dogs again and help them with their obedience so they would more likely to be adopted as opposed to being sent back.

"So, What are you gonna name her," Emerald asked with a curious glance, "She looks sorta like a Gizmo to me."

The wolf girl attempted to fix the lock back on the door, but ended up failing at it miserably. She growled at it kicking the knocked off lock towards the door of the main office, away from the dogs. Emerald hated locks anyways.

Gawain carried the puppy back to the truck, still slightly dazed from the fact that he'd just adopted a dog of unknown breed or origin. She kept wiggling in his arms, and pulling on the straps of the backpack and the neck of his t-shirt.

"Ya gotta teach me that alpha thing" he muttered to Emmy, watching her close the gates the best she could. It was not locked anymore, but at least the dogs wouldn't escape just to be collected again.

>>"So, What are you gonna name her? She looks sorta like a Gizmo to me."

"She ain't a Gizmo" Gawain stated with dignity "She's... she needs a badass name. She's probably half hellhound half werewolf, or somethin' like that."

The puppy worked on proving that point by chewing on anything she could reach once Gawain was sitting in the truck with her.

"I need a name fit for a female warrior..." he muttered, wrestling with the newes member of his adoptive family.