Xochi the Axolotl

So, this is going to be a fairly wordy description. I encourage you to read as this involves something very dear to our planet.

I'll start with what is important...

Just the other night I was blissfully browsing wtf_nature on live journal, when I saw an entry in reguard to the axolotl. As I read it my heart began to break.

It linked to this: [link]

In summary, wild axolotl could be extint in 5 years time.

I love these little unique amphibians, they are one of my favorite animals, and to see such an important and wonderful creature dissappear in such a short time would be devastating.

I've written to the IUCN, I want to find out what can be done.
But for now I want to do what's in my power, even if its just making other people aware that axolotls are in trouble. Even if just one person writes to them, or gets involved, that's at least one more person who cares, one more important piece of the bigger picture.

On to the image.

After having read the article, I felt the need to dig up some very old art of mine. I had an axolotl character from back in 1996. It never really got used for much and there was really only one picture I did. But I felt compelled to redraw the character and bring them a little more to my current standard of working.

The original sketch from 1996: [link]

I've made many changes to them, even the name.

Her name is Xochi (so-chee). Essencially she is an axolotl, though on Shi'Imora her race is known as the Xotyl. She is good-natured yet fierce.
Considered a stong swimmer even among her own people (they are mostly aquatic and rarely come to land).
In her youth, most of her tribe was killed off, by by the larger Tilathian's, for thier meat and eggs. She was saved by her parents but in a second attack was seperated from her family and driven far away.

She grew up, living a mostly solitary life, in waters far from her home. Now that she is older, she longs to find more of her kind and return to the place that was once her home. She is more than willing to fight and even kill, to do so.