To help protect the salamander, the National Autonomous University of Mexico launched a campaign asking people to virtually adopt an axolotl or help pay for one of its meals.

The name caught on partly because “axolotl” sounds similar to the Japanese for “stupid old person”.) Slowly, the axolotl seeped into Western popular culture. Wildlife documentaries came first.

This is my axolotl, known scientifically as Ambystoma mexicanum, but known to me as Goober — the amphibian I credit with teaching me to embrace vulnerability. There are so many ways to describe ...