Orion

Orion is one of the many animals that was sent into space during the Space Race. He was a young puppy who was picked to be a Russian cosmonaut after his mother was killed on the streets by a drunkard. His time in this program was the first time he had felt love, so he was willing to comply with anything the scientists asked. He was one of the last sent out into the vast void of space, nicknamed Orion or "Zvezda" in Russian, which translates to little star in English. After drifting around far past our solar system, the program assumed and pronounced him dead. Far from his home, he's found by a large wyvern who is only friendly towards Orion and offers to get him home.