Lois McAuliffe has been a children's librarian for 40 years. She currently works in Ashland, Mass., where all the kids who come to the library know that Miss Lois LOVES hippos! Lois has wanted a pet hippopotamus since she was a kid. She even came up with an elaborate plan to build a pond in the backyard, so her hippo would stay nice and cool. The hippo was going to share the backyard with the horse that her sister wanted. They had to settle for pet cats, dogs, and a muddle of guinea pigs instead. These days Lois shares her home with two cats, named Dundee and Mistletoe (Misty), and a guinea pig named Nugget.