Page 6 - Animal Kin

Victoria and Loudey
Victoria was a beautiful German shepherd that was giv- en to us by someone who couldn’t keep her. She wasn’t a puppy when we got her and she hadn’t grown up around children and she was a little serious. When I say she was serious what I mean is she didn’t frolic or act silly like a young dog. She did follow us around though and she was never short tempered. Often, late at night, she would creep into my room and quietly climb up on my bed to sleep with me. I though that she didn’t want to hurt anyone else feel- ings about choosing me to sleep with and of course it made me feel very special. All night I would try to stay still so she wouldn’t leave the bed.
When I was seven, my mom came home with a little surprise- a tiny baby raccoon. She had stopped at the pet store on her way home from work to get mealworms for our Horned toad, and there was a baby raccoon for sale. We named our baby Loudey and she was so small she could sit in my mom’s hand. Victoria thought that this baby needed a mother and she stepped in to that role. After a messy meal when Loudey had food on her face, Victoria would lick her