REALLY BRIEF AND SOMEWHAT VAGUE PERSONALITY BIO THING: Lakota is, essentially, an easily-entertained, happy derp. She's a nerd/geek/dweeb who loves video games, sewing, and reading. She loves water and will leap into it at every opportunity, and will happily play in the rain. She isn't *entirely* stupid, but knows the value in sometimes acting cute and dumb when it's useful to do so. She's the kind of wolf who will give the fur off of her own back (sometimes literally) to help a friend. But, she's still a derp. Nothing really bothers her much (probably because getting angry takes brain power, which she cannot spare), and she enjoys giving hugs, especially to fluffy/fuzzy things. If she ever made the effort to put it into words, her philosophy would probably be something along the lines of "Life is too short to waste on being angry, sad, upset, or unhappy, so I am just going to be SUPER HAPPY ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!"
		NOTES: SPECIES: Wolf GENDER: Female AGE: Adult Lakota doesn't have any breasts/boobs or visible nipples. No visible genitalia, either. She is still feminine in overall body shape/face shape/eye shape - she just lacks external sexual identifiers. She has a normal canine nose - The weird "dash"-shaped nose you see on some of my art of her is just a stylistic choice of mine. And by that I mean "when I am too lazy to draw a full nose" >_> She doesn't wear clothing, and she doesn't have any "head hair"/humanlike hair, although the top of her head is a bit fluffy/floofy. She can be drawn either anthro, or feral/quadrupedal/animal-like. When in anthro form, she's digitigrade - never plantigrade!
		MOAR NOTES!: When seen from a perfectly sideways-on view, Lakota's hip markings appear to run all the way to the edge of her belly. However, from the front/three-quarters view, the hip markings do not touch each other/meet on her belly. Her claws are claw-colored! (Really just any neutral-ish claw color - brown, gray, etc.) Her pawpads and tongue are pink/natural-colored. Her inner ears can be pink/natural-colored, or white and floofy. The black "stocking" markings on her limbs stop somewhere just below the elbows on her arms/forelegs, and just below the ankle-joint thingy on her hindlegs. (Google says they're called "hocks", not ankles. THANKS GOOGLE!) She has two swooping, triangular-ish markings on her neck, one on each side. In fact, all of her markings are symmetrical!

ALSO LAKOTA WILL STEAL YOUR HAIR WHEN YOU ARE NOT LOOKING AND THEN WEAR IT


...j/k, she never has head-hair, not even stolen hair! THIS IMAGE IS A SLANDEROUS LIE!

But like I said before, she'll give you the fur right off her own back.

Sometimes when you don't even need it.
Or want it.




*I AM ASHAMED TO ADMIT THAT ALL INCREDIBLY INCONSISTENT ART ON THIS PAGE WAS SADLY DRAWN BY ME except for the screenshots below, which I stole from Google like an asshole*



IF YOU SCROLLED DOWN THIS FAR, YOU DESERVE A TREAT!


BEHOLD, SECRET LAKOTA TRIVIA!
WHICH I AM TOTALLY SURE YOU'RE INTERESTED IN!


Lakota is named after a real wolf. The original Lakota was a member of the Sawtooth Pack, an "ambassador" wolf pack that lived in Idaho.
https://www.livingwithwolves.org/sawtooth-pack/meet-the-pack/

Lakota was known as the "jokester" of the pack, often instigating play amongst his packmates, especially when tensions were high between some of the packmembers.

Lakota was born in 1991. I was given an "Adopt-a-Wolf" kit around '92-'93, and Lakota's personality and the meaning behind his name ("friend") really resonated with me.

Ironically, I chose to sponsor Motomo, NOT Lakota. But for some reason, the name "Lakota" felt right to me.

I'd been drawing myself as a wolf for a while by then, but couldn't settle on a name.
I remember there was a period of time when I named my character "Ringo Freedom Tribeca".
(IDK, I was a weird kid.)

But I've been "Lakota" ever since I first saw a photo of the real Lakota.

The real Lakota died in 2002.

As a character, Lakota hasn't changed in appearance since 1993. That is the year when I was 11.

It is also the year when the amazing cartoon ExoSquad was on TV. I loved this show with every fiber of my being.
It was, hands down, the best Western cartoon I had ever seen (in my 11 long years of cartoon-watching) and it still IS the best Western cartoon ever. IMO, that is XD

The character who I loved most of all was the intelligence/communications officer, Alec DeLeon.
Not only did he have the most amazing name ever (Alec! My dad was always telling me not to be a smart aleck, so I felt an immediate kinship with anyone named Alec),
but he was also blonde (I was blonde! wait, I still am) and the most cheerful guy on the squad, with a hell of a sense of humor.
Besides, he clearly was in love with Lt. Maggie Weston, and at the tender age of 11, I was a sucker for love stories.

Here are some pictures of Alec:



Seeing where this is going? XD

Alec's goggles/mask became Lakota's facial mask marking.
His communications microphone thingy in his right ear became the triangular markings on Lakota's neck.
His yellow hair became her yellow fur XD

Lakota's "cape" markings down her back and tail are artifacts from my "vampire obsession" phase,
when she was a vampire wolf named Bloodspawn. So it's a vampire's cape XD
(That obsession absolutely had NOTHING to do with me reading all of the Bunnicula books when I was a kid. >_>; )

Her black paws/stockings are just kind of generic markings,
but all of the other markings are 100% Alec DeLeon :}
Even her eye color is cribbed from Alec's.


I loved Exosquad so much, I even named my first cat Kaz >_>;