Creature Comforts Finding My Flock

Writer Alissa Hessler learns the meaning of friendship from a steadfast woolly companion.

- Alissa Hessler

Whenever I smell the earthy musk of lanolin, I am transported back to the day we brought home Sandy, my first furry V V friend. After a long drive through the quiet reaches of the country, my mother and I arrived at the Romney sheep farm, eager with anticipation. "Take your pick," the farmer said. The decision fell heavy upon my young shoulders.

Unsteady on her long, gangly legs, with one ear alert and the other askew, Sandy was my reflection in lamb form. She rode home in our station wagon cradled in a cardboard box on my lap.