Camelot: Member
Jerry grew up in a small community in Oregon. He lived with his grandmother until he was a teenager, when she died. After that, he wandered between places, trying to figure what to do with his life.
He was taken in by Henry, who raised sled dogs. Jerry ended up being a natural with them, almost as if he understood them.
So he found himself working as a dog trainer and guide in Antartctica. He was one of the top guides, with a fun sense of humor, and though some of his colleagues never paid him much attention as he was just the ‘dog’ guy, others relied on his information about the weather, the land and the animals.
He was requested to take a scientist named McClaren to Mount Melbourne, to attempt to find a rare meteorite from the planet Mercury. Shepard agreed, ignoring his own intuition, which kept telling him it was too late in the season (January) to complete such a treacherous route. Worried about the snowmobiles breaking through the thinning ice or falling into a crevasse, Shepard told Harrison and McClaren that the only way to get to Mount Melbourne was by dog sled.
Shepard and McClaren made it to Mount Melbourne, but were immediately called back to base camp due to an approaching heavy storm. McClaren begged for more time, and Shepard reluctantly granted him half a day. McClaren found what he was looking for and the two headed back to the sled.
On the way back to base, things went wrong and McClaren was injured. It was only Jerry’s intuition and the work of his dogs that got them to safety. They were immediately evacuated, along with all other personnel, due to the worsening storm that was expected to intensify. With too much weight in the plane to carry both people and dogs, the human team medically evacuated Shepard and McClaren with a plan to return later for the dogs. The dogs were temporarily left behind, but the storm proved far worse than expected. Because of the harsh weather conditions and a shortage of supplies at McMurdo Station, it soon became apparent that no rescue would be attempted for the dogs until the next spring.
Jerry was determined to get back to his dogs. So determined in fact, that he kept striving for funds to mount a rescue expedition, but no one would help him, until finally he met Ernest Shackleton, who agreed to fund the project only if he could travel with him. He had to convince Jerry of his experience in Antarctic exploration, but it was complicated trying to tell him without revealing his true nature.
With Shackleton’s influence however, an expedition was mounted and they were able to make their way back to the base. While traveling, Jerry misstepped and fell down a small ravine, but by the time Ernest reached to him, hypothermia had set in, and even worse his leg was broken. Such things would normally spell the end for anyone trapped on the ice with such an injury. Nevertheless, Shackleton told him the truth about his actual identity, as well as Vampires and Mates, not wanting the young man to be mislead about what being Turned would mean. Jerry agreed to being Turned with a promise to figure it all out when they get home, as long as they could help the dogs.