Nyla

"earth"

- My shirshu can smell a rat a continent away.

Nyla was a male shirshu. He served as the mount and constant companion of the bounty hunter June. June acquired Nyla from her father when he received it as payment for a bounty he had collected while working for a rare animal collector. Nyla and June 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 missions, Nyla tracked a bounty stowed away on Zuko's ship. He bit into the metal deck, tearing a large piece out to reveal the stowaway. Zuko hired June to track down the Avatar using the Shirshu. When Zuko tracked and attacked Aang, Nyla fought Appa and paralyzed him with its tongue, although it took several hits to bring the flying bison down. Katara defeated Nyla by confusing him with perfume which she bent out of pots in the abbey. 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 the shirshu could sniff it. He turned in circles then covered his nose, unable to find Aang. Zuko then decided to track down Iroh instead, and he 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

 * When Zuko held Katara's necklace in front of Nyla's powerful nose, Nyla lashes out with its poisonous tongue. Then June remarked, "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, her shirshu had a name, and June even pet him and referred to Nyla as her "Snuffly-Wuffly", though she was obviously wary of his venomous tongue as he showed June affection.
 * According to Avatar Extras, Nyla was named after one of the writer's pet dog.
 * Nyla appeared briefly in the animated short "School Time Shipping" like a few other familiar creatures.