Lucky Lady! Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner has adopted the dog that played the dire wolf that belonged to her onscreen character, Sansa Stark, and was killed off on the series.
The adoption news, which Turner first revealed in an interview last August, was reignited as a trending topic early Wednesday, May 7, in a Reddit thread called, "Sansa adopted the dire wolf who was killed off in the GOT."
As fans of the hit series will recall from the first season, Ned Stark (Sean Bean) was forced to kill his daughter's pet dire wolf, after the pooch was condemned to death by King Robert Baratheon. The emotional scene did not settle well with viewers, especially pet lovers, including Turner. In an interview with the Coventry Telegraph, the actress said she adopted the canine, an American Alsatian, following its onscreen demise.
"Growing up I always wanted a dog, but my parents never wanted one," Turner told the paper. "We kind of fell in love with my character's dire wolf, Lady, on set," she added. "We knew Lady died and they wanted to re-home her. My mum persuaded them to let us adopt her."
On the smash show, dire wolves are a supersized and smart species of wolves. The breed is also the sigil of House Stark. In the first season, Ned Stark and the Stark children found a dead mother dire wolf, and her six newborn cubs. The five Stark kids and Ned Stark's bastard child Jon Snow adopted the puppies, each child sharing a close connection to each wolf. (By season four, only Jon and Bran's dire wolves—Ghost and Summer—are accounted for.)
Turner's pet dog, by the way, was renamed Zunni.
