Nyla

"earth"

- My Shirshu can smell a rat a continent away.

Nyla is a male Shirshu. He served as the mount and constant companion of the bounty hunter June. June acquired Nyla from her father who received it as payment for a bounty he had collected when working for a rare animal collector, and the two had been together for over seventeen years. Like other Shirshus, Nyla's tongue contains poisonous neurotoxins that can temporarily paralyze a human being.

History
In one of June's assignments, Nyla tracked a bounty stowed away on Zuko's ship. Nyla bit into the metal deck, tearing out a large piece to reveal the stowaway. Zuko hired June to track down the Avatar using Nyla. When Zuko tracked and engaged Aang, Nyla fought Appa and paralyzed Appa with its tongue, although it took several hits to bring him down. Katara defeated Nyla eventually by confusing him with perfume which she bended out of pots tipped over by the nuns. Nyla 'blindly' lashed out and paralyzed Zuko and June successively before running away.

Months later, when Aang went missing, Zuko took Team Avatar to meet June. They found her in an Earth Kingdom tavern. Outside, Nyla and Appa seemed to have befriended each other. Katara handed Aang's staff to June, so Nyla could sniff it. Nyla turned in circles then covered his nose, unable to find Aang. Zuko then decided to track down Iroh instead, and handed June his uncle's sandal. Nyla sniffed it then led them to the walls of Ba Sing Se where he and June then left them.

Trivia
In the episode "Bato of the Water Tribe", when Zuko holds Katara's necklace in front of Nyla's powerful nose, Nyla lashes out with its poisonous tongue. Then June remarks, "oh look, he likes you", but shows no affection towards Nyla in the least, treating him more like a tool than an animal. This is mainly because she was on a job and takes her payments seriously. However, in June's reappearance in "Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters", her Shirshu has a name, and June even pets him and refers to Nyla as her "Snuffly-Wuffly" obviously being wary of his venomous tounge as he shows June affection.