Sheriff (Backwater City)

The Sheriff of Backwater City is an anthropomorphic bull, and the highest authority of law enforcement on the Mobian Prairie. He has an adversarial relationship with Boss Krouch the mayor of Backwater, who (it is suggested) went over the Sheriff's head when appointing his own son as Deputy.

History
When Chito tried and failed to kill Rooster in an Apterix stampede on Boss Krouch's orders, Chito managed to allay suspicion on himself by accusing Knuckles of the crime. Although there was no proof, Rooster agreed to take Knuckles to Backwater City so that the Sheriff could sort it out. However, when they arrived they found that the Sheriff was out of town, so Knuckles was instead locked up by Deputy Krouch. A lynch mob working for Boss Krouch (and with Deputy Krouch's assistance) tried to lynch Knuckles, in order to prevent the truth of Knuckles' innocence (and Chito's guilt) emerge when the Sheriff returned. Fortunately, the Sheriff returned just in time to prevent the lynching and disperse the mob, shooting the hangman's rope with his rifle.

On returning, the Sheriff immediately kicked out Deputy Krouch and stripped him of his deputy's badge as a disgrace. He then appointed Knuckles as his new deputy. He advised Knuckles to remain in town until they could determine who had tried to kill Rooser, but both already suspected that Chito was responsible. After Knuckles managed to extract a confession from Chito, the Sheriff joined him in hunting down Boss Krouch. Sheriff rounded up Krouch's men while Knuckles took down Krouch himself.

Trivia

 * The Sheriff's species, cattle, is a reference to the term cowboy.
 * The Sheriff wears a white coat and hat. White hats were common elements in Western movies in which they indicated which of two gunfighters was the good guy. Villains or bad guys typically wore black hats instead. Both Boss Krouch and Deputy Krouch wear black hats.