Shadow (Homeward Bound)

"Shadow was loyal, Shadow was faithful... Shadow was a chump."

~Chance's opinion on Shadow
Shadow was an old golden retriever and one of the three heroes in the 1993 Disney film, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. He was one of the many heroes amongst dogs in its sequel Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco. In the films, since he is a dog, he cannot speak but can through the mind as well as all other dogs and cats in both films. In the first film, he was voiced by Don Ameche but after the actor passing away after the film came out, he was voiced by Ralph Waite in the sequel.

History
Shadow is a wise, old golden retriever. He is very loyal and obedient toward his owner named Peter, a teenage boy who loves him very dearly. Given his age, he sees the way of a dog as his own law. His pet comrades are Chance, a young, immature American bulldog and Sassy, a Himalayan cat who respects Shadow despite him being a dog. He considers himself Chance's guardian as he feels he must watch over the "pup" and keep him from out of trouble. Chance thinks of him as an old fusspot and calls him "old timer," but still has respect for him as well. For an old dog, he can hold up on his own. He is able to outrun a mountain lion and can keep up in a fight against mean stray dogs.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
In the first film, his owner Peter gets a new stepfather and the family go away on vacation and the three pets are left with a family friend on a cattle ranch in the middle of the woods outside San Francisco. Peter did not want to leave him there but had to temporarily. Peter told Shadow to stay when he left and as his pet, he obeyed but still felt he should go with him. As a few days go by, Chance begins liking the ranch and think that they have been abandoned; Shadow assures him that their owners would never do such a thing but still feels that being without them doesn't feel right. Then, Shadow truly feels that them not back yet means something is wrong and decides to leave and wait for them back home. Chance and Sassy try to stop him as they don't how to get back or which direction to go. Shadow did not care as he was determined to get back home. Afraid of their old friend traveling alone, they join them and the incredible journey begins. On the ride to the farm, Shadow saw a cliff which he believes was close to the city and when they arrive to the top, they see woods as far as the eye can see. A few days go by and they are in the heart of the woods of the pacific northwest. They encountered raccoons, skunks, and hear wolves and coyotes at night and one day they encounter a mother grizzly bear and escape.

They come across a river with a powerful current and Shadow decides to find a calm area to cross but Sassy was impatient and decided to jump over rocks and cross a seemingly stable log to get across but it breaks and falls in. Shadow ran along the river to try to save Sassy but she could not swim so Shadow jumped in. She was too far and the current was dragging her closer to a waterfall. Shadow, with his doggy skills of swimming gets closer, but it was too late; Sassy went over and Shadow and Chance rushed to the bottom to find her but no luck. Later that night, Shadow wallowed in self-pity and guilt and blames herself for what happened. Chance tries to tell him that she made her choice and that he did what he had to do. So the two dogs journeyed on and they try to learn how to catch a fish Sassy's way but no luck. By this time, Peter learns of their disappearance and blames his stepfather for it. He tries to set things right and send out flyers throughout half the state to find them.

Meanwhile, Shadow and Chance are walking along a mountainside and are being stalked by a hungry Mountain Lion. While Shadow was searching for fish underwater, Chance spots the cougar and tries to warn Shadow but everytime he looks, the cougar disappears and tells Chance to be quiet. The cougar reappears much closer to them and Chance yells again and Shadow looks, the puma lets out a terrifying shriek and they run off. Chance feels embarassed that they're running from a cat but this big cat makes an exception. They lose him but become conered on a cliff above a river. Chance reads off his will to Shadow and Shadow sees several rocks that look like a seesaw and thinks of a plan. Shadow will go back and lure the cougar and have him stand on one side of the seesaw. On his signal, Chance will jump on the other and will catapult the cougar into the river. Shadow then goes back and starts barking to get the cougar's attention. He does so and a chase is ensued. For an old dog, Shadow managed to outrun the big cat but the cougar was still on his tail. They reached the ledge and Shadow stood beside the seesaw and had Chance lay low. The cougar appears and Shadow taunts him to draw him closer. The cougar gets on the seesaw and Shadow gives Chance the signal but the young dog gets distracted. The cougar gives a loud shriek which wakes up Chance and he jumps and the cougar is catapulted into the river. He was fine but realized he was outmatched and ran off and the two dogs barked victoriously.

Sassy, having survived her watery grave, hears them barking in the distance and sets off to find them. Shadow and Chance are galloping through the plains, thanking each other for their teamwork. Shadow hears a cat meowing and wonders if it was Sassy and it was. The three pets were reunited again. Later that day, Chance sees a porcupine and tries to befriend it but the animal saw Chance as a threat and attacked him having put three quills in his cheek. Shadow and Sassy try to pull them out but they make it worse. As they countinued on, Shadow heard crying and finds a lost little girl and the pets watch over her through the night. The next morning, Shadow hears people and tries to find them. The girl's father was leading a rescue team and Shadow guided them to the girl and the father thanked Shadow for watching his daughter. Several wildlife rangers recognized the pets from the wanted signs and brought them to their pet shelter. When they get taken to the shelter, Chance immediately recognizes it as a pound and the pets satrt to panic. Chance is taken to the vet but he sees it as a torture chamber, Shadow is put with other dogs and Sassy runs into the woods. The guards tell Shadow that his family are on their way but he does not believe them. Sassy sneaks in, breaks out Shadow and the two break into the vet's office and rescue Chance. Shadow and Sassy make it out of the gate but Chance gets stuck and the guards capture him. Shadow jumps on the gate and barks to scare the guard which it does and the pets escape. Shadow then feels like they should go back but Chance tells him that he's delusional and they continue on. Little did they know that Peter and the family arrived later that night and were sad by the news.

As they continued on, they could see the city in the distance and head for home. They wind up in a trainyard and after almost being hit by an oncoming train, Shadow falls through a unstable rail and injures his paw. Shadow was injured and unable to climb out of the muddy ditch. Chance and Sassy remind him of everything he did on the journey and can get through this but he still could not get out. Chance jumps in to help but Shadow easily gives up. He tells Chance to leave him be and take care of Peter for him. Later, the family is outside their house and they start to hear barking. Chance appears running towards them with Sassy following. The family was overjoyed to see them and Peter anxiously waited for Shadow. After waiting too long, Peter assumed that Shadow is probably dead and was too old to carry on and walks back in the house. Just then, Shadow appears and he and Peter run towards each other and embrace joyfully. The pets were reunited with their owners at last but they'll never forget the jouney they had.