Larabee

Larabee  by Kevin Luthardt

2004

Weight: 13 oz

Method of Disposal: Gave to my niece, Isabella

Larabee did come to me as an adult.  It was just too perfect to be passed up.  I loved animals as a young girl (are you surprised?), and I was brought to the zoo many times.  My father would let me ride piggy back and at the end of the trip my brother and I would always get a rainbow snow cone.  I loved the flamingos when you first walked in and the peacocks that roamed about.  In Atlanta, we had the gorilla, Willie B. who I called Willie The Bee for far longer than I probably should have.    I could not hear it any other way.

One day, my family took in a stray Australian shepherd.  My mother asked me what I would like to name the dog, and I wanted to name her Laura the Bee, also known as Laurabee.  I wanted her to be named after me and my favorite primate.  Was that so much to ask?  My mother refused, though she did it while laughing, and proclaimed that the dog would be called Dottie.  She WAS speckled.   Anywho, I saw this book while walking around the bookstore with my mother as an adult, and we could not resist.

Larabee, the dog in the book, also loves mail and letters.  The USPS might be a little bit of an obsession of mine.  Just sayin’.

I saw my niece today, and I know how much she loves dogs and all sorts of animals so I passed it on to her.  She flipped through it in the car on our drive to the park, where we made friends with a little girl who had her own motorized car, listened to and saw squirrels eating nuts in the trees, and meandered around a beautiful garden touching blue concrete owls.  All and all a lovely day, don’t you think?

**I am no longer a fan of zoos, as a general rule.  I do not believe animals should be kept in captivity unless they are rescued and unable to be rehabilitated.  Then, I believe they should be in dedicated and well-run sanctuaries.**