Lady Beluga

Beluga (aka Lady Beluga, aka Bell, aka Lady Bell, aka The Arctic Author, aka The Sea Canary)

Female / narrator / 3.5 meters long (11.5 feet or 1.5 Yao Mings) / weight (a lady doesn't share that sort of information) / almost threatened population

Beluga whale the species:

If you're in a foul mood, do an image search for 'beluga' whales.  I've seen golden retriever puppies that looked less friendly than a beluga does, so they will cheer you up.  Or at least a little. Part of what gives these beautiful creatures their faces full of personality is that they have a flexible neck. No other whale has a neck with the same capabilities.  Their upper lip curves in just such a way that makes it appear that they're smiling or grinning.  To me they just look happy.  During certain parts of the year, the Inuit are on the lookout for belugas.  They don't hunt them, but they do hunt the bowhead whale for sustenance and belugas frequently stay near a bowhead.  Scientists have said that the relationship is symbiotic based on their very similar migration pattern, but I don't know what the mutual benefit is.  Belugas are high up on the food chain, but they are hunted by polar bears. They're highly social animals so they're almost never found alone and they twitter like birds almost constantly chattering away.  Thus their nickname is the sea canary.  The white skin they adorn provides camouflage amongst the ice, but when they travel south for the winters, they'll gather parasites that alter their color some.  Before they head back to the sea ice, they molt (shed) their skin so they're shiny and sparkling white once again.  

Beluga the character:

When I created the Beluga character (name of her species), I had studied her species carefully. Belugas were always seen with other belugas, so I thought of this as her congregation and her white skin would work well for a christian because purity seems to be such a focus of christianity that I remembered from growing up.  That and I remember there being so many hang ups for progress in your life, ones that you must overcome to move forward.  Also, your outward appearance always seemed to matter so much to your inward divinity (think dressing up for church) so I decided she would be a Christian whale who wrote to her congregation at regular intervals.  Her need to feel like she was still amongst her congregation, drives her.  She is a very important character to the story, so I hope you'll like her.  

"Bell sharing her smile with the world"