Courtauda and the Twins

The paintings in this gallery follow the story I wrote about  Courtauda, a Canadian gray wolf, and Lulu and Lola, twin girls who became Courtauda’s foster daughters and lived under the mantle of her protection for more than a year.

One spring morning Lulu and Lola’s father was flying his private plane, with the girls and their mother as passengers, from the United   States to their home in Canada.  Just as the plane passed over Canada’s great boreal forest, an enormous area covering millions of acres, the plane developed engine trouble. He struggled valiantly to save them but the plane crash landed, killing both of the twins’ human parents. The little girls, two years old at that time, were asleep in the back of the plane and were miraculously unharmed. They woke, discovered their parents still as stones, and climbed out the open door of the plane. The little girls found themselves in a beautiful glade surrounded by tall trees with the sun shining through their tops. They made their way into the woods, wandering until they grew tired and hungry. Lola began to cry and Lulu joined in. Perhaps it was their cries that signaled Courtauda. The gray wolf had given birth just days before and sadly all four of her pups died within hours. She was walking slowing through the forest, both grief-stricken and sore, as her teats were still full of milk that was meant for her pups.

Courtauda stepped through the underbrush and saw two little creatures looking at her with awe. She approached them quietly and lay down close to them. Soon the twins followed their natural instincts and were suckling on Courtauda.

The little girls and the wolf were together for many months before they were found by their mother’s twin sister, Esmeralda, a naturalist who had never given up on searching for her sister and her family. Esmeralda had great respect for wolves and recognized that Courtauda was like a mother to the girls. Lulu and Lola went back to civilization and lived with their aunt but every summer Esmeralda brought the girls back to spend time with Courtauda, their foster mother, and the rest of the pack that had adopted them when they were in need.  Once they were sixteen they went on their own and camped near their pack for the whole summer.

One sad day, when the twins were grown women, Lola arrived to discover Courtauda was dying. She arrived in time to bid goodbye to her loving wolf mother and mourn her passing with their pack.