Friendship

The importance of friendship for all creatures is a central theme in the novel. When Odder is just a pup, she loves spending all her time with her mother. The only time they are ever apart is when her mother dives for food and leaves Odder tied up in seaweed for safekeeping: “It was awful, each time / her mother left her / alone. / If you asked Odder / (or any otter pup), / life should be nothing / but warmth and milk, / cuddling and play, / on demand, / twenty-four hours a day” (104). On the day of the terrible storm, Odder is unraveled from the seaweed by heavy waves and swept away from her mother onto shore. The humans find her and help her, and she learns to trust them, but they are not her friends, so she feels lonely and as if she is missing a true connection. When she is...