Little Suzy’s Zoo

We thought you’d like to know a little about the inspiration for these characters and the world they live in….

When Suzy was about three years old, she drew pictures with pencils and colored them in with crayons. She learned her artistic skills from an expert, her four-year-old sister, Sally. Suzy’s childhood memories were forged during the 1940’s while growing up in Southern California. It was time when mommies stayed at home and had peanut butter and jelly picnic basket lunches with their children as they hung the laundry out to dry in the fresh California sunshine.

When Suzy’s little brother Johnny was born, she became his companion and guardian. It was Johnny’s wispy golden hair that looked like a cross between a dandelion and a duckling that inspired Suzy to bring Witzy to life. Suzy, Sally and Johnny explored the backyard together. They picked dandelions and made wishes upon them, collected ‘tickle bugs’, picked flowers for Mommy and made forts out of the freshly dried laundry that fell from the clothesline.

It is these memories of the vibrant colors of clothes hanging on the clothesline; Mommy’s picnic basket; the dandelions that grew wild in the backyard; the grasshoppers zooming by and her garden filled with tickle bugs and butterflies that are the deeply-rooted sources of inspiration from which Suzy draws upon to create the nostalgic imagery of Little Suzy’s Zoo.

Suzy’s artwork and gentle spirit has been celebrated internationally for over 35 years. In 1999, Suzy drew Witzy, Patches, Lulla and Boof to life. It is through the combination of her delightful artistic renderings, adorable character personalities and her ever-positive outlook on life that make Little Suzy’s Zoo a nostalgic glance inward into the imaginary world of a baby duckling that everyone, young and old, is growing to real love.