Roary, the Literary Lion of Lyon

How Bonnie and I got together

2011-08-21T22:51:00.003-04:00

The original of this story is posted here.

Lion 30 : Words From A Wordsmith

Lion 30:

Roary.

Artist behind the lion:

Alain Pouillet (French painter).

Adoptive Owner:

Bonnie at Words From A Wordsmith.

Blog Description:

Bonnie Jacobs is the woman behind this blog, which is run in conjunction with a sister site: Bonnie's Books. This 67-year-old lives in Tennessee in the US and is obviously someone passionate about books and writing. Her sites, which appear to have been launched only five or six months ago, are teeming with wonderful titbits on the craft. The writing is warm and elegant.

Poem or piece of prose inspired by the lion:

I am lion, hear me roar
about things too big to ignore
'cause I'm tired of all the governmental lyin';
the whole world is going mad
and my writing's not too bad,
so I want to be a literary lion!

About the lion's name:

Bonnie says:

"I named him Roary because of his deep, magnificent roar. Hey, he's proud of that roar! The name seemed appropriate when I studied the 'screaming' faces below his feet and felt the power of his roar. Take a look at those faces around the lion's feet. They each resemble the person in the famous painting The Scream by Munch. What do you think? Does Roary need to roar for those 21 faces? Do they need his strength?

I looked up Roary's name online and now I'm wondering if I misspelled it. Under a different spelling (RUAIDHRÍ, pronounced ROR-ee), I found it means "red king" from Irish ruadh "red" combined with rí "king." This was the name of the last high king of Ireland, reigning in the 12th century. Roary is a king, so that fits, since lions are known to be kings. Red? Sometimes his fur looks slightly reddish, in the right light, but maybe there's another meaning. Red of tooth and nail, perhaps? Or tooth and claw, killing to survive on the African savannah."

Roary says:

"This is my version of the story: I let Bonnie think she named me, though I kept whispering "ROR-ee, ROR-ee" telepathically in her ear. I have adopted her version of the name because I don't care how she spells it. What I wanted was an opportunity to roar for justice.

Once upon a time in the land of Lyon, I was an unknown lion waiting for an artist. Taken in by Alain Pouillet, a French painter, I was transformed into the beautiful creature you see in the photo above. Inside my hide, I was still Roary the lion who wanted to roar about the injustice I see in the world. While protecting the people in agony below me, I felt helpless to do more, but I was nevertheless required to stand tall as people admired the artist's work on the canvas of my fur. It was months, nay years, before Bonnie stumbled upon my photo and felt we should become partners in a writing project. I would be able to ROAR like a lion!

When she discovered me, I was known simply as Lion #30. Now I am a literary lion, working with a published writer, ready to roar to protect people in need, like the persons represented by the faces on my pedestal. There are 21 of them, so I have convinced Bonnie to work with me to produce 21 roars: Roar #1 will appear soon on this blog, as soon as I decide where to start in the myriad problems confronting the world today. Wish me luck, fellow lions, and please feel free to suggest subjects for my roars."

11 comments:

L.M.Noonan said...: hi Bonnie and welcome to the pride. I like your helen reddy spoof. I also enjoyed the brief visit I paid to your blog and the greening a blue planet blog. I plan to visit again soon and get through the older posts; 10 June 2007 17:33
Bonnie Jacobs said...: Oh, I'm SO glad someone recognized it as a spoof on Helen Reddy. I was halfway afraid her song had been too many years ago for most people to remember. Thanks for taking a look at my blogs, LMN; I'll come visit your blog today. Eventually, I want to visit and add all the writers of this writing circle to my bloglist.; 11 June 2007 06:27
Minx said...: "Oh yes I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the pride
But look how much I gained"....a whole load of liony friends!; 13 June 2007 06:18
Bonnie Jacobs said...: Thanks, Minx, that's perfect!; 14 June 2007 08:34
Bonnie Jacobs said...: With the addition of the lines Minx added to my poem, it seems to be GROWING instead of shrinking to fit within the 48 word limit. Seamus, let's just cut off the original "poem" after the words literary lion and let that be my "official" inspired writing about Roary. I think that puts me at 40 words, officially.; 14 June 2007 12:35
Shameless said...: OK, Bonnie. Changes made.; 16 June 2007 01:24
Bonnie Jacobs said...: Thanks, Seamus. Would you please take me off the list of folks who were breaking the rules? I feel like I'm standing in the corner for being naughty or something.

Things are shaping up nicely within our circle, and I am delighted!; 16 June 2007 05:48
Shameless said...: Hi Bonnie, you're off the naughty list now. :) I'm also delighted with how things have developed ... lots and lots of great reading to be had here with all these amazing blogs. What talent there is out there.; 16 June 2007 08:27
Bonnie Jacobs said...: How Roary got his name:

I named him Roary because of his deep, magnificent roar. Hey, he's proud of that roar! The name seemed appropriate when I studied the 'screaming' faces below his feet and felt the power of his roar. Take a look at those faces around the lion's feet. They each resemble the person in the famous painting The Scream by Munch. What do you think? Does Roary need to roar for those 21 faces? Do they need his strength?

I looked up Roary's name online and now I'm wondering if I misspelled it. Under a different spelling (RUAIDHRÍ, pronounced ROR-ee), I found it means "red king" from Irish ruadh "red" combined with rí "king." This was the name of the last high king of Ireland, reigning in the 12th century. Roary is a king, so that fits, since lions are known to be kings. Red? Sometimes his fur looks slightly reddish, in the right light, but maybe there's another meaning. Red of tooth and nail, perhaps? Or tooth and claw, killing to survive on the African savannah.; 18 June 2007 06:45
Roary Lyon said...: This is my version of the story: I let Bonnie think she named me, though I kept whispering "ROR-ee, ROR-ee" telepathically in her ear. I have adopted her version of the name because I don't care how she spells it. What I wanted was an opportunity to roar for justice. Today I posted this on my blog : Roary, the Literary Lion of Lyon

Once upon a time in the land of Lyon, I was an unknown lion waiting for an artist. Taken in by Alain Pouillet, a French painter, I was transformed into the beautiful creature you see in the photo above. Inside my hide, I was still Roary the lion who wanted to roar about the injustice I see in the world. While protecting the people in agony below me, I felt helpless to do more, but I was nevertheless required to stand tall as people admired the artist's work on the canvas of my fur. It was months, nay years, before Bonnie stumbled upon my photo and felt we should become partners in a writing project. I would be able to ROAR like a lion!

When she discovered me, I was known simply as Lion #30. Now I am a literary lion, working with a published writer, ready to roar to protect people in need, like the persons represented by the faces on my pedestal. There are 21 of them, so I have convinced Bonnie to work with me to produce 21 roars: Roar #1 will appear soon on this blog, as soon as I decide where to start in the myriad problems confronting the world today. Wish me luck, fellow lions, and please feel free to suggest subjects for my roars.; 20 June 2007 13:00
Roary Lyon said...: All of you are invited to visit my lion's den, The Literary Lion of Lyon. My mate Sophia has delivered our first cubs. Yes, twins!

Roary ^..^ we have two ^..^; 19 July 2007 16:15

Bye, polar bear

2008-06-26T15:45:00.003-04:00

Going ... going ...

gone. ....... Bi-polar bear? or bye-bye polar bear?

Invitation to "Tell us a story"

2008-06-19T13:31:00.001-04:00

Do you like to tell stories?
Did you ever sit around a campfire listening to stories?
Bonnie (my writing partner) has started a new blog, one where folks will share stories.
Check it out:
Tell us a story.

I may have a go at it myself. I could share a ROAR or two.

Let's pause for a moment of silence, please

2008-06-07T09:46:00.004-04:00

If I knew how to drape my blog in black, that's what I would do today. I've just read that the Caribbean monk seal has become extinct. What that really means, of course, is that "people" have just today confirmed that it's true. Do you want to know the really bad part? The AP article says, "Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable." Extinction is forever, people! We aren't talking about the death of a single seal, but the death of a whole KIND of seal. The article goes on to say, "The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula." And "the species is the only seal to become extinct from human causes." YOU did it, you people did it. I'm especially bothered by the list of reasons: "research, food, and blubber."

Oh, did I hear someone ask where I got this photo? It's an Hawaiian monk seal in this stock photo taken a decade ago, and there are only about 1,200 of them left. This species is declining at the rate of about 4% a year, according to NOAA, which protects them. When their numbers get below 1,000 in the next three or four years, they too will be among the most endangered marine species in the world. You researched them to death! I am so totally depressed that I can't talk to you anymore right now. I'm in mourning.

Didja hear about that parrot?

2008-05-21T10:01:00.003-04:00

I know, I know, I've been away far too long. But nobody told me how much fun it would be to have cubs around the house, and I've been having fun with them. It took a parrot to bring me back to my blog. It was this parrot, whose name is Yosuke, now back home in his cage:

Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address

When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help. Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said. He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said. The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years. But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials. "I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

ROAR #3 ~ environmental damage

2007-10-15T01:31:00.000-04:00

Today, October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to focus attention on one single issue: our damaged environment. Bloggers everywhere will post about the environment in their own way and, for me, that means another ROAR. The idea is to get all of us talking about a better future. If you want to know more about what others are doing, click on THIS LINK.

Let me share a couple of quotes from Daniel Quinn's book The Tales of Adam:

(1)
When the gods set out to make the universe, they said to themselves, "Let us make of it a manifestation of our unending abundance and a sign to be read by those who shall have eyes to read. Let us lavish care without stint on every thing: no less upon the most fragile blade of grass than upon the mightiest of stars, no less upon the gnat that sings for an hour than upon the mountain that stands for a millennium, no less upon a flake of mica than upon a river of gold. Let us make no two leaves the same from one branch to the next, no two branches the same from one tree to the next, no two trees the same from one land to the next, no two lands the same from one world to the next, no two worlds the same from one star to the next. In this way, the Law of Life will be plain to all who shall have eyes to read: the rabbit that creeps out to feed, the fox that lies in wait, the eagle that circles above, and the man who bends his bow to the sky."
And this was how it was done from first to last, no two things alike in all the mighty universe, no single thing made with less care than any other thing throughout generations of species more numerous than the stars. And those who had eyes to see read the sign and followed the Law of Life.

(2)
God is life in abundance wherever life is found, but not for all in every season. When the locusts thrive, the birds feast and the bison and the deer go hungry; still that place is as full of life as it was before and as full of life as it can be. No place where there is life is a desert, except to man.

I hope you humans wake up soon because you are ruining everything for us animals as well as yourselves. (I hope, I really hope, I'm not just roaring to myself here.)

ROAR #2 ~ torture

2007-10-11T00:51:00.000-04:00

TORTURING ANY LIVING THING IS WRONG !!! It's WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong-headed!!! ROARRRRRrrrrrrrrRRRRRRR!!

I don't know why it's so hard for humans to understand that torture is just plain WRONG. You torture animals, you torture other humans ... what is wrong with you that you would do such a thing?

Although I have been in the United States only a few months, I have been an informed citizen of the world for a very long time. I am distressed about the way humans treat each other. Oh, I know what you're thinking, that lions kill all the time. It's true that we kill to eat, but we don't torture each other. Okay, you over there, I heard you whisper something about cats toying with small animals they catch. Don't try to change the subject! ROAR-R-R-R-R-R-R-RRrrrrrrRRRRRR !!!!!

And Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States, says the U.S. tortures prisoners. That's according to the Associated Press on Wednesday evening. Here's the article I read:

WASHINGTON - The U.S. tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday, adding that President Bush makes up his own definition of torture.

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said on CNN. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime."

Bush, responding to an Oct. 4 report by The New York Times on secret Justice Department memorandums supporting the use of "harsh interrogation techniques," defended the techniques Friday by proclaiming: "This government does not torture people."

Carter said the interrogation methods cited by the Times, including "head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures," constitute torture "if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored -- certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.

"But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don't violate them," Carter said.

In an interview that aired Wednesday on BBC, Carter ripped Vice President Dick Cheney as "a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military."

Carter went on to say Cheney has been "a disaster for our country. I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush."

Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell declined to speak to Carter's allegations.

"We're not going to engage in this kind of rhetoric," she said.

In the CNN interview, the Democratic former president disparaged the field of Republican presidential candidates.

"They all seem to be outdoing each other in who wants to go to war first with Iran, who wants to keep Guantanamo open longer and expand its capacity -- things of that kind," Carter said.

He said he also disagreed with positions taken by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have declined to promise to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq over the following four years if elected president next year.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

If only some of you humans would get as enraged as I am about this issue, maybe you could stop some of the torture. Do you know about the pain an animal goes through testing whether a cosmetic will be painful to you? Probably not, but we feel pain too, you know. Why do you wear that stuff anyway? We lions, we ANIMALS, think we look just fine as we are. So why do you think you aren't good enough the way you are? Is it because you lost all your fur? You DO look a little naked when you aren't wearing pieces of cloth to cover yourselves, but I don't understand why you paint and cover the little bits of yourself that show, like your faces. Oh, well, that's not my point. If you MUST wear cosmetics, try the stuff out on yourselves and leave the rabbits alone! Quit torturing them!

And quit torturing each other. If you don't understand what torture is, let me put it in simple words: QUIT HURTING EACH OTHER. It's that simple. It's what you teach your children, but you don't listen to yourself. Don't hurt anyone. Don't hurt any living thing. ROARRRrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRR!!

Wiener Dawg Race

2007-10-10T12:53:00.000-04:00

A three-legged dachshund named Longfellow runs to the finish line to win a race at the Annual Savannah Wiener Dawg Races Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007, in Savannah, GA. Longfellow missed last year's races after being hit by a car and losing one of his hind legs. After recovering for the year, Longfellow joined more than 175 dachshunds from around the South to compete for prizes during races at the Oktoberfest Festival on the Historic River Street Waterfront. (AP Photo/Photo Stephen Morton)

Bonobo baby

2007-10-10T12:49:00.000-04:00

In this photo released by the Zoological Society of San Diego, a 1-month old, endangered bonobo is fed by her caretakers at the San Diego Zoo, Oct. 9, 2007. Mali, which translates to 'something valuable' in Swahili, was born on Sept. 4. Her mother experienced a very difficult birth and Zoo veterinarians and keepers had to quickly intervene to ensure the baby's survival. Although she was in critical condition the first couple weeks, keepers report she is progressing nicely. (AP Photo/Zoological Society of San Diego, Ken Bohn)

How baboons think (yes, think)

2007-10-10T12:33:00.000-04:00

by Nicholas Wade
October 9, 2007
New York Times

At the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana, Barbara grooms her older sister, Amazon, while another sister, Domino, and her baby watch.

Royal is a cantankerous old male baboon whose troop of some 80 members lives in the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana. A perplexing event is about to disturb his day.

From the bushes to his right, he hears a staccato whoop, the distinctive call that female baboons always make after mating. He recognizes the voice as that of Jackalberry, the current consort of Cassius, a male who outranks Royal in the strict hierarchy of male baboons. No hope of sex today.

But then, surprisingly, he hears Cassius’s signature greeting grunt to his left. His puzzlement is plain on the video made of his reaction. You can almost see the wheels turn slowly in his head:

“Jackalberry here, but Cassius over there. Hmm, Jackalberry must be hooking up with some one else. But that means Cassius has left her unguarded. Say what — this is my big chance!”

The video shows him loping off in the direction of Jackalberry’s whoop. But all that he will find is the loudspeaker from which researchers have played Jackalberry’s recorded call.

The purpose of the experiment is not to ruin Royal’s day but to understand what goes on in a baboon’s mind, in this case how carefully the animals keep track of transient relationships.

Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, a husband-and-wife team of biologists at the University of Pennsylvania, have spent 14 years observing the Moremi baboons. Through ingenious playback experiments performed by themselves and colleagues, the researchers say they have worked out many aspects of what baboons use their minds for, along with their limitations.

Reading a baboon’s mind affords an excellent grasp of the dynamics of baboon society. But more than that, it bears on the evolution of the human mind and the nature of human existence. As Darwin jotted down in a notebook of 1838, “He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.”

Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth are well known for a 1990 book on vervet monkeys, “How Monkeys See the World,” in which they showed how much about the animals’ mental processes could be deduced from careful experiments.

When a baby vervet’s call is played to three females, for instance, the mother looks to the source of the sound. The two others look to the mother, evidence that vervets know whose baby is whose.

An experiment like this — recording the sounds, waiting until the animals are in the right place and performing numerous controls — can take months to complete, but the results are widely admired by other biologists. “Any work of Dorothy and Robert’s is going to be as good as you get in the field,” said Robert M. Sapolsky, a Stanford biologist and an author who has studied baboons in the wild for many years.

“There is no one else in the area of animal behavior who does such incredibly interesting experiments in the field,” said Marc Hauser, a biologist at Harvard who was their first student.

Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth have summed up their new cycle of research in a book titled, after Darwin’s comment, “Baboon Metaphysics.” Their conclusion, based on many painstaking experiments, is that baboons’ minds are specialized for social interaction, for understanding the structure of their complex society and for navigating their way within it.

The shaper of a baboon’s mind is natural selection. Those with the best social skills leave the most offspring.

“Monkey society is governed by the same two general rules that governed the behavior of women in so many 19th-century novels,” Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth write. “Stay loyal to your relatives (though perhaps at a distance, if they are an impediment), but also try to ingratiate yourself with the members of high-ranking families.”

Baboon society revolves around mother-daughter lines of descent. Eight or nine matrilines are in a troop, each with a rank order. This hierarchy can remain stable for generations.

By contrast, the male hierarchy, which consists mostly of baboons born in other troops, is always changing as males fight among themselves and with new arrivals.

Rank among female baboons is hereditary, with a daughter assuming her mother’s rank.

News of that fact gave great satisfaction to a member of the British royal family, Princess Michael of Kent. She visited Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth in Botswana, remarking to them, they report: “I always knew that when people who aren’t like us claim that hereditary rank is not part of human nature, they must be wrong. Now you’ve given me evolutionary proof!”

Baboons live with danger on every side. Many fall prey to lions, leopards, pythons and the crocodiles that in the wet season stalk the fords where baboons cross from one island to another. Baboon watchers are subject to the same hazards. Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth say their rules are not to work alone or to wade into water deeper than knee high. They often find themselves sitting in a tree with baboons waiting out a lion below. But going into New York is more petrifying, they contend, than dodging Botswana’s predators.

The baboons will bark to warn of lions and leopards, but pay no attention to some other species dangerous to humans like buffalo and elephant. On two occasions, baboons have attacked animals, a leopard and a honey badger, that threatened their human companions. “We haven’t lost any post-docs,” Dr. Seyfarth said.

For female baboons, another constant worry besides predation is infanticide. Their babies are put in peril at each of the frequent upheavals in the male hierarchy. The reason is that new alpha males enjoy brief reigns, seven to eight months on average, and find at first that the droits de seigneur they had anticipated are distinctly unpromising. Most of the females are not sexually receptive because they are pregnant or nurturing unweaned children.

An unpleasant fact of baboon life is that the alpha male can make mothers re-enter their reproductive cycles, and boost his prospects of fatherhood, by killing their infants. The mothers can secure some protection for their babies by forming close bonds with other females and with male friends, particularly those who were alpha when their children were conceived and who may be the father. Still, more than half of all deaths among baby baboons are from infanticide.

So important are these social skills that it is females with the best social networks, not those most senior in the hierarchy, who leave the most offspring.

Although the baboon and human lines of descent split apart some 30 million years ago, the species have much in common. Both are primates whose ancestors came down from the trees and learned to survive on the ground in large social groups. The baboon mind may therefore shed considerable light on the early stages of the evolution of the human mind.

In some of their playback experiments, Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth have tested baboons’ knowledge of where everyone stands in the hierarchy. In a typical interaction, a dominant baboon gives a threat grunt, and its inferior screams. From their library of recorded baboon sounds, the researchers can fabricate a sequence in which an inferior baboon’s threat grunt is followed by a superior’s scream.

Baboons pay little attention when a normal interaction is played to them but show surprise when they hear the fabricated sequence implying their social world has been turned upside down.

This simple reaction says a lot about what is going in the baboon’s mind. That the animal can construe “A dominates B,” and distinguish it from “B dominates A,” means it must be able to break a stream of sounds down into separate elements, recognize the meaning of each, and combine the meanings into a sentence-like thought.

“That’s what we do when we parse a sentence,” Dr. Seyfarth said. Human language seems unique because no other species is capable of anything like speech. But when it comes to perceiving and deconstructing sounds, as opposed to making them, baboons’ ability seems much more language-like.

Assuming that early humans inherited the same ability from their joint ancestor with baboons, then when humans first started to combine sounds in the beginning of spoken language, “their listeners were all ready to perceive them,” Dr. Seyfarth said.

Baboons may be good at perceiving and thinking in a combinative way, but their vocal output consists of single sounds that are never combined, like greeting grunts, the females’ sexual whoop and the males’ competitive “wahoo!” cry. Why did language, expressed in combinations of sounds, evolve in humans but not in baboons?

A possible key to the puzzle lies in what animal psychologists call theory of mind, the ability to infer what another animal does or does not know. Baboons seem to have a very feeble theory of mind. When they cross from one island to another, ever fearful of crocodiles, the adults will often go first, leaving the juveniles fretting at the water’s edge. However much the young baboons call, their mothers never come back to help, as if unable to divine their children’s predicament.

But people have a very strong ability to recognize the mental states of others, and this could have prompted a desire to communicate that drove the evolution of language. “If I know you don’t know something, I am highly motivated to communicate it,” Dr. Seyfarth said.

It is far from clear why humans acquired a strong theory of mind faculty and baboons did not. Another difference between the two species is brain size. Some biologists have suggested that the demands of social living were the evolutionary pressure that enhanced the size of the brain. But the largest brains occur in chimpanzees and humans, who live in smaller groups than baboons.

But both chimps and humans use tools. Possibly social life drove the evolution of the primate brain to a certain point, and the stimulus of tool use then took over. Use of tools would have spurred communication, as the owner of a tool explained to others how to use it. But that requires a theory of mind, and Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth are skeptical of claims that chimpanzees have a theory of mind, in part because the experiments supporting that position have been conducted on captive chimps. “It’s bewildering to us that none of the people who study ape cognition have been motivated to study wild chimpanzees,” Dr. Cheney said.

“Baboons provide you with an example of what sort of social and cognitive complexity is possible in the absence of language and a theory of mind,” she said. “The selective forces that gave rise to our large brains and our full-blown theory of mind remain mysterious, at least to us.”

I'm back

2007-10-10T12:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry, sorry, sorry, people! I've been having so much fun with the cubs as they grow bigger and stronger day by day that I just disappeared from the blog. Sorry about that, but not about the fun I've been having. I noticed Bonnie's been doing lots of reading and writing lately, even without my help. If cooler weather ever gets here, we'll work together again. In the meantime, I think I'll share some of the animal stories I've been reading. Actually, I never finished ROARING about animal rights, and I will return to that subject. For now, however, I think I'll just post what I've found. Like that hospice cat I left you with, back in July. You'll be seeing more of me in the future.

Oscar, the hospice cat

2007-07-28T02:30:00.001-04:00

Oscar the cat predicts patients' deaths
By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer
Friday, Jul 27, 2007

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill. She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near. Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying. If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying. Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."
___

Science writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
___

New England Journal of Medicine: http://content.nejm.org/

ROAR #1 ~ all about animals

2007-07-24T18:25:00.000-04:00

Look at the floor design of my pedestal in the large photo above. See those faces? To me they look like the famous painting by Munch called The Scream. I believe there are at least 21 screaming needs out there in the world, and I intend to ROAR about them. Today I am ready for the first big ROAR, and it's about animals. Yes, animals. You humans are animals, though you like to put yourself into some sort of "higher" category. Well, I'm a lion who is proud to call myself an ANIMAL. Do I sound angry? Well, I'm getting there!

This ROAR will take several posts over several days. So far, these are some of the things on my mind:
(1) personhood
(2) extinction
(3) animal rights
(4) domestication
(5) captivity

This is the only photo I have of my friend Ishmael, on the cover of one of his books. Some day we'll have to get together and have a photo made of the two of us together, and then I'll post our photo on my sidebar for all to see. Anyway, Ishmael is a teacher and has tried to teach several students, one at a time. Following his example, I am now trying to teach my first student, whose name is Bonnie. I have an advantage over Ishmael, since Bonnie has already read some of HIS books, so we shall see where this new endeavor takes us.

Ishmael and I both remember Africa. There he was a member of a gorilla family, and I was a member of a lion family. When Ishmael's mother was killed and he was captured and put behind bars, he lost that family. In his family, he didn't think of himself as an individual, but as part of a hand. In the zoo with other gorillas, it was more like severed fingers which do not make a hand. When I was taken from the Serengeti to Lyon, I was with other lions, but we were not a family.

My first ROAR includes the agony of separation from family. What right do humans have to capture and imprison animals? Do we have no rights at all? You put us behind bars like prisoners, and for what? What have we done that was so wrong? Now some talk about extinction, that you are protecting us, saving us from extinction. ROARRRRRR! And who, pray tell, is driving us to extinction? YOU are!

We are persons, too. I have gotten Bonnie to agree with me on that, and she's on her computer right now, posting something on her blog about animals as persons. In spite of roar elocution lessons, Bonnie is still learning how to really ROAR. Ishmael says he became a person on the day he realized he had a name:

I soon understood that these sounds in some mysterious way attached directly to the two of us as individuals. You, who have had a name from birth and who probably think that even a pet dog is aware of having a name (which is untrue), cannot imagine what a revolution in perception the acquisition of a name produced in me. It would be no exaggeration to say that I was truly born in that moment -- born as a person. (From page 14 in the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.)

When Ishmael realized those sounds had meaning, he began to listen closely to what humans visiting the menangerie were saying. Within a couple of years he was able to follow most nearby conversations. But he was puzzled by something.

I knew by now that I was a gorilla and that Zsa-Zsa was a chimpanzee. I also knew that all the inhabitants of the wagons were animals. But I could not quite make out the constitution of an animal; our human visitors clearly distinguished between themselves and animals, but I was unable to figure out why. If I understood what made us animals (and I thought I did), I couldn't understand what made them not animals. (From Ishmael, page 15.)

And that's a problem for me as well. If you would simply recognize that you are animals, part of the animal kingdom, perhaps you would empathize a bit more with those of us that are not human. We are no less individual persons than you are.

I have been sitting here silently, with my paws poised over my keyboard, wondering how you people are taking these words from a literary lion. I think I'll just break it off here for the day, as I see Bonnie has finished her shorter piece and has dinner ready for the two of us. I'll let you ponder my prose, which I hope is not too ponderous (it's a joke ... you're supposed to laugh). I shall return on the morrow to say a bit more, hoping I'll get through to someone. Maybe Ishmael will read it and comment. Hmmm, I'm not sure he has a computer. Okay, so maybe some of you (one of you?) will add a word or two. What are you thinking? If you need to visualize some of this, look at the cover of the book I'm reading right now. See? Joy Adamson knows that lioness was "born free" before she got mixed up with humans.

Little bundles of fur

2007-07-19T17:46:00.000-04:00

And now, the BIG news at our house! Our little bundles of fur arrived, right on time. We had twins.

Shange was born first; her name in Zulu means "she who walks like a lion." That's her photo on the left.

On the right is her brother Xamm, whose name is from Namibia and means "lion." Both cubs and mother are doing well. I've been roaring like a proud papa!

I'll post more photos in the near future, but now ... now I should have a little time to begin my 21 ROARS, as promised.

Home, Sweet Home

2007-07-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, but a lot has been happening on the home front. You have seen our entrance under construction in an earlier post. When our home was completed, as this photo shows, Sophia arrived and was able to furnish our place to her liking. (See her picture on my sidebar.) You can see our back yard through those windows, and the entrance is behind me. We knew we had to have a big yard for our cubs, with woods beyond our yard. Now we were ready, just in time, because it was time! (See the post above.)

The lion sleeps tonight

2007-07-01T18:58:00.000-04:00

It ain't over 'til the hippo sings! Bonnie has shared with me her joy at learning my favorite song in a roundabout way. Louis told Dewey who told Bonnie that my favorite song is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." If she had asked, I would have told her, but I think there was more to it than that. It seems to me Bonnie was so shocked that Dewey considered her a Rockin' Girl Blogger, she was giddy. I read Dewey's post naming her and discovered Bonnie never even said, "Thanks, Dewey." (Bonnie just looked over my shoulder and said, "Roary, don't say that!" What do you think, friends, will Bonnie go back and thank Dewey?) Anyway, here's my song, if you want to hear my favorite version of it.

Soon, my roaring begins

2007-06-20T14:04:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time in the land of Lyon, I was an unknown lion waiting for an artist. Taken in by Alain Pouillet, a French painter (see an example of his art HERE), I was transformed into the beautiful creature you see in the photo above. Inside my hide, I was still Roary the lion who wanted to roar about the injustice I see in the world. While protecting the people in agony below me, I felt helpless to do more, but I was nevertheless required to stand tall as people admired the artist's work on the canvas of my fur. It was months, nay years, before Bonnie stumbled upon my photo and felt we should become partners in a writing project. I would be able to ROAR like a lion!

When she discovered me, I was known simply as Lion #30. Now I am a literary lion, working with a published writer, ready to roar to protect people in need, like the persons represented by the faces on my pedestal. There are 21 of them, so I have convinced Bonnie to work with me to produce 21 roars: Roar #1 will appear soon on this blog, as soon as I decide where to start in the myriad problems confronting the world today. Wish me luck, fellow lions, and please feel free to suggest subjects for my roars.

Pardon the construction work

2007-06-18T14:42:00.001-04:00

This has been a rush job, which is coming along handily, but I really have moved in before the construction workers quite finished my den.

I'll show you the interior another time, when Sophia and I get settled in here. I have moved all my posts and comments from my first blog into this one, and you may read them below. There is no need to keep the other one bookmarked because I won't be using it any longer, once I move the stuff on the sidebar to this new den.

THE ... literary lion has a new den

2007-06-18T14:40:00.001-04:00

I've moved, again. The first blog was built off Bonnie's many blogs, and I wanted one of my own. Both look the same, with one very important word added to my title:
THE ... Literary Lion of Lyon

Here, you will be able to read my profile, see my family photo album on the sidebar, read my elegant writing, see what I'm up to ... as I try to educate my human to the fullest of her ability.

Roary ^..^
moving in, moving on

Oh, these humans...

2007-06-18T14:39:00.009-04:00

Bonnie sat down at her computer this morning as we had agreed, while I did my best to inspire her. I can see already that it will take a lot of work on my part to move her to a good place for writing. As it is, she jumps right in to the actual typing, putting words on paper like there's no tomorrow. Now I must teach her to meditate before setting down the words. She needs to think herself into the scene before she tries to write about it. Human are so slow to understand, though she isn't TRYING to be obtuse. Do you want to see what she managed to write? She posted it on my (our?) Lion #30 spot over at Seamus's place, so I can copy-and-paste it here:

How Roary got his name:

I named him Roary because of his deep, magnificent roar. Hey, he's proud of that roar! The name seemed appropriate when I studied the 'screaming' faces below his feet and felt the power of his roar. Take a look at those faces around the lion's feet. They each resemble the person in the famous painting The Scream by Munch. What do you think? Does Roary need to roar for those 21 faces? Do they need his strength?

I looked up Roary's name online and now I'm wondering if I misspelled it. Under a different spelling (RUAIDHRÍ, pronounced ROR-ee), I found it means "red king" from Irish ruadh "red" combined with rí "king." This was the name of the last high king of Ireland, reigning in the 12th century. Roary is a king, so that fits, since lions are known to be kings. Red? Sometimes his fur looks slightly reddish, in the right light, but maybe there's another meaning. Red of tooth and nail, perhaps? Or tooth and claw, killing to survive on the African savannah.

I'll probably let her go on thinking she named me. The other lions and I have all told our human writing partners our names, telepathically, of course. Humans, though, are less developed than most of the animals and don't hear anything, most of the time. Most likely the reason is that they have failed to open the third eye and have thus far been unable to use their inner ears. Bonnie heard my powerful message to her as "ROR-ee," which was enough. I don't care how she spells it and have adopted her spelling for convenience.

I was chatting with Dewey this morning: "Let me think of a word to describe Bonnie ... hmmm ... you humans look so naked to me, not having any fur, you know. When you want a fur coat, you kill an animal and take theirs. Not nice, not nice at all. Or else you drape cloth all over yourselves, making it quite evident to the whole animal kingdom that you want to hide your bodies. Let's see, unlike lions, Bonnie is not elegant. Neither does she walk softly and gracefully, as we lions do. I'll have to give this some thought and get back to you."

Dewey had challenged my idea that Bonnie was pretty good, though I wouldn't call a 67-year-old woman pretty. Now I'm stuck. I have looked through my thesaurus to no avail. I need help, so I'm calling on my lion friends to tell me how they would describe THEIR humans. What words would you use?
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2 comments (from my original blog):

On June 18, 2007, Endelyn said...
Well, one of the first things that my owner did was go away for a week! Now that she's back she seems... well... a little NOISY. I can see that I too will have to teach her that silence can be golden and inspirational.

On June 18, 2007, Roary said...
Well, what can you expect? They got rather uppity when they came down from the trees and started going about on their two hind paws.

Working agreement

2007-06-18T14:39:00.007-04:00

Bonnie tells me she has made the BIG announcement, not that it is any surprise to my friends in the pride. They already know Sophia is my mate and that she is expecting our first cub (or cubs). I have posted a photo of her on what amounts to my desk, by putting Sophia at the top of my blog. Maybe when she arrives, I'll move the photo down. Or maybe I'll put it in this post. Or maybe (wise move for a lion), I'll ask the lioness herself what she prefers. Ah, yes! Ah, yes.

We have work to do, Bonnie and I. Today is Father's Day, she tells me. Since I am not yet a father ... or am I? ... no, not yet ... Since I am not yet a father, I have time to make plans for the coming week.

After dinner last night, Bonnie and I came up with what may be a workable schedule for us. I get the idea she is used to writing as the spirit moves her, but Bonnie is already learning I'm a muse of a different stripe. She has agreed to regular, daily time together at the computer, with her hands on the keyboard, working. I may give her Sundays off; she says that's a tradition, though we lions know that when we get lazy and sit around the savannah, we don't eat. Maybe it's a human thing. At any rate, our real work begins in the morning.

Now pardon me, please, while I get back to my reading.
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2 comments (from my original blog):

On June 17, 2007, colleen said...
Every lions going to want their own blog now...and a girlfriend!

On June 17, 2007, Roary said...
Maybe we shameless lions will take over the blogosphere! In the sense of becoming the most trusted commentators, of course. I'm sure Elliot would be an excellent blogger, if he's interested. Not all of us want the extra work, of course.

Roary ^..^

What's in a name?

2007-06-18T14:39:00.005-04:00

Since she looked up mine, I suppose I should look up the derivation of Bonnie's name before she comes to dinner this evening. Hmmm, Bonnie, B-o-n ... that's good! (Small inside joke for those of us with a smattering of French ... bon means "good" as in bon bons.) Oh, here it is: Bonnie means "pretty" from the Scottish word bonnie, which was itself derived from Middle French bon "good." Told ya' so!

Pretty and good. Pretty good, which doesn't quite mean what either word means. Bonnie's pretty good, though. Speakers of the English language don't usually call a 67-year-old woman "pretty," though maybe "good" would fit her, when she isn't mistrusting her writing partner.

I wonder if she's heard of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Now, the poor fellow in that book REALLY had a problem with his name. Thank goodness I'm not named Gogol!

Time to go fire up the grill.
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4 comments (from my original blog):

On June 16, 2007 Dewey said...
Roary! Many people would consider a 67 year old human pretty!

On June 17, 2007, Shameless said...
Roary,
Are you going to say Bonnie Apetit before dinner? I am enjoying reading what you have to say ... very very nice.

On June 18, 2007, Roary said...
Good one, Seamus! I'll have to remember that for next time.

Dewey, I've heard "beautiful" attributed to elderly humans, but "pretty" sounds rather child-like, to me. We might say "what a pretty picture!" to a child or "what a pretty dress you are wearing!" Let me think of a word to describe Bonnie ... hmmm ... you humans look so naked to me, not having any fur, you know. When you want a fur coat, you kill an animal and take theirs. Not nice, you know. Or else you drape cloth all over yourselves, making it quite evident to the whole animal kingdom that you want to hide your bodies. Let's see, unlike lions, Bonnie is not elegant. Neither does she walk softly and gracefully, as we lions do. I'll have to give this some thought and get back to you.

Roary ^..^

On June 18, 2007, Bonnie Jacobs said...
Yes, Roary, I read The Namesake and posted a review of it on my Bonnie's Books blog. Click on the title of the book in your post, which will take you to my review.

Grilled salmon, anyone?

2007-06-18T14:39:00.003-04:00

Somebody give that woman a good stiff drink to relax her!

No, no, I'm sorry, Bonnie, I should be talking directly to you. We really need to sit down and have a long talk, especially after you posted "Red of tooth and nail" on your blog.

How could you possibly say, "Red of tooth and nail (umm, claw) would fit the life of a lion on the plains of Africa, killing to survive. That gives me shivers. But surely Roary wouldn't turn on me, would he?"

You should know by now what I'm like. You should feel at ease around me and realize there's no WAY I would ever turn on you like that. The most I would ever do is ROAR at you. Haven't you heard the saying "his roar is worst than his bite"? Natter, natter, grumble, fret, you GET the idea, don't you? Yes, it means the same thing as bark and bite, for Pete's sake!

I don't plan to eat you. Haven't you seen what I eat? Of course, you have! So you should know I am a connoisseur of fine food and drink. Would you join me for grilled salmon this evening? I have a fantastic recipe for salmon fillet using bourbon whiskey, brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, a little ginger, and black pepper. Whaddaya think?

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5 comments (from my original blog):

On June 16, 2007, Vesper said...
Hey Roary,

I think it's great! I simply love grilled salmon. (Not to mention the bourbon... :-) ) Thank you for stopping by and for inviting me at your place. I'm sort of missing the African plains.
You and your mistress, Bonnie, are always welcome to visit me and Vesper.

All the best from Alexander

On June 16, 2007, LJCohen said...
Yum! Sounds fabulous, Roary. When's supper?

I haven't figured out what Lucidus loves to eat. Probably juicy words. :)

Thanks for the invite and for dropping in to visit us at the Blue Muse Ranch.

Best,
Lisa and Lucidus

On June 16, 2007, Dewey said...
Mmm, that salmon sounds good. But I think my husband is in the kitchen making a spinach salad right now, so no salmon for me tonight.

On June 17, 2007, Tirso said...
hi roary,
that looks delicious!
i would love to dine with you...is it all gone?

~Tirso

On June 17, 2007, Roary said...
Friends, all of you, the lovely photo shows what I served Bonnie for dinner last night. Indeed, it is all gone. However, you are welcome to drop by next weekend and we'll party. How's that? Invite the others. Let's get the whole pride together. Maybe Sophia will arrive before the party. Bring a dish, if you like, and I'll provide a thing or two myself. Please mention this on the writing circle blog, in case I forget it when I mosey over there later.

Roary ^..^

Roar elocution lessons

2007-06-18T14:39:00.001-04:00

Ghufran, who is paired up with Pearl, left me a message: "For sure Roary, roar for the people who don't roar loud enough for themselves, or give them roar elocution lessons." Thanks, Ghufran, this is a wonderful idea! You have inspired me. Roar elocution lessons ... that is absolutely perfect! I've already gotten this sign made and need to borrow some tools to put it in front of my den. Oh, thank you for the use of your hammer. Now if you would hold this post steady while I pound it into the ground ....

Library of a literary lion

2007-06-18T14:38:00.001-04:00

Pardon these temporary lights on my philosophy shelf. Just wanted to share a few of my serious books.

Bonnie wrote about some of my books yesterday, calling her post Library of a Lion. Good grief! She mentioned a bunch of children's books first, as though that list helped to define me. Sure, I do read about lions, literary and otherwise, but I also read philosophy, history, politics, sociology, earth sciences, archeology, geography, global warming, English -- I managed to add French after traveling to France from the Serengeti, but this American English stuff if tough! I've managed so far, probably because so many Americans came to the Serengeti, but I need to keep working on my vocabulary. I sound pretty good, you say? Thanks.

Let's return to the subject of books. Have you heard about Ishmael? He's a silverback gorilla who advertised for a student. I recommend Daniel Quinn's book about him, which is entitled simply Ishmael. The book offers readers an entirely new perspective on humanity's relationship to the world. I have also read Quinn's sequels, My Ishmael and The Story of B. These books are, of course, in my literary library. So are a couple of other books by Quinn, Beyond Civilization and his newest one If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways, a 2007 book. You haven't heard of it? Well, it figures. You humans seem so smug, not that I'm putting you down or anything. It's just that you are so pleased with yourselves, so sure of yourselves. For example, you are proud to call yourselves civilized, as though civilization were a good thing. I'm not sure about that at all.

Louis and Viaggiatore, you and the other lions in our pride know what I'm talking about. Humans just don't get it, do they? It seemed to take Ishmael forever to get the human to hear his thoughts, though we animals regularly communicate in that way. I've already noticed that Bonnie's cat Kiki comes and sits in her lap, thinking thoughts toward her. Yet Bonnie doesn't always get it. Kiki walks over to the door and sits politely waiting for Bonnie to hear her asking telepathically to be allowed outside. Sometimes Bonnie comes to open the door, but only when she SEES Kiki sitting there. How lame is that?

Humans are so slow to learn from us, but have we ever made the mistake of inventing "civilization" and fencing off land from others? No, of course not. Oh, well, more on this later. I want to keep reading Quinn's books.
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5 comments (from the original blog):

On June 16, 2007, L.M.Noonan said...
I read 'Ishmael' years ago and found it to be a truly imaginative and cautionary tale. I haven't read any of the other novels you've mentioned. I did make the mistake of watching the movie based on the book. I thought a great read and an actor like Anthony Hopkins would make for a really good movie...bah phooey humbug.
welcome to the pride.

On June 16, 2007, Roary said...
Thanks for the welcome. Movies never seem to live up to the book. By the way, don't forget to tell Lorenza that I hope she'll come over for a visit. Thanks.

Roary ^..^

On June 16, 2007, Rob Kistner said...
Roary -

Artheo here!

It was nice of you to invite me to your blog here!

And yes, I remember you. I came to you as your muse, the time you were trying to compose that ode to the wounded antelope — of course, claiming you had no hand (paw) in the matter of the injury… ;)

My, you’ve come a long way… your own blog… and who’s this human called Bonnie you’ve partnered with.

She seems proficient enough as a scribe — given she’s only a human.

Thank you for stopping by Rob’s blog, Image & Vere. Rob’s a nice enough fellow. Seamus asked me to keep an eye on him — he’s getting old… bad heart and all, you know.

Seamus explained that for the sake of Rob’s male ego — I should let him think he has ‘adopted’ me, so… he tries his best to act as ‘my protector’. Protect THE PROTECTOR… I think not! But, I abide his fantasy, and encourage his creativity at the same time.

Humans… so very strange?

Im glad I stopped by your blog Roary... your own song even... very cool -- very cool indeed.

It was nice hearing from you again my friend.

Well, got to fly!

On June 16, 2007, Roary said...
Hello, Artheo! So good to see you again. You kind of like the human you got, huh? Me, too, she's okay ... also getting old, but in good health as far as I know.

Now about that wounded antelope, I remember that day. How could you imply that I had anything to do with that? If I wanted to kill him, I'd have done a better job than that! My good fellow, I can dispatch antelopes with the best of the lions, so watch what you're saying, please.

Arrhummph! So sorry 'bout that. Too bad you must leave so quickly; I'm sure we could find lots to reminisce about. Do come back soon.

Roary ^..^

On June 16, 2007, Remiman said...
Roary,
Zacch here. Thanks for leaving your calling card with rel. I'm surprised I got it at all. He's an ok guy. but gets distacted easily in his old age. His heart is in the right place but sometimes he tries my patience. I spent the entire day in the lab today doing some investigating for Viaggiatore. When I came out i tried to discuss it with rel so that he could pass along the results to Scarlett but the info was a little above his head. Don't misunderstand, he's of average intelligence but that doesn't quite get it in our world does ti?

Anyway, he did mention that you had inquire for me. I think we may have collaborated on some literary works in the past.....Let's get toether at the next pride mtg. and reminisce.
Zaccharias.

Hey, it's me, Roary

2007-06-18T14:16:00.000-04:00

Listen, my new writing partner Bonnie has a great blog over there at Words from a Wordsmith, but she gets to do all the talking. Don't you agree with me that I should have a blog of my own? Here 'tis! And let me tell you, let ... me ... tell ... you, let me just TELL you that I plan to do all the talking here! Hear me roarrrrrRRRRRRRR, I'm telling you!

I've got a lot to roar about, starting with these people at my feet that I have sworn to protect. There are (I think) about 21 or so of them, and I plan to listen to the stories each one has to tell. Click on this photo of me and look at their faces up close. Go ahead and do it now.

Did you look? Those faces haunt me, and I intend to do something about it. Did you read my theme song just above? They inspired it, these faces, these screaming faces full of such pain and agony. If I have to, I can write anything. I shall write to right the wrongs. If others are not moved by the stories of those in pain, that's their problem; I myself will do all I am able to do by putting their stories out onto the blogosphere. I am a literary lion, and that's the only way I know how to help.

I've been educating myself about what's going on in the world. I have been from the Serengeti to France and now to the United States, and I have seen that things are not all right. No, not at all. You know it, I know it, and we must act. I'm ready; are you?
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3 comments (on the original blog):

On June 15, 2007, Dewey said...
I think it's great that you have your own blog now. I wonder if Louis wants his own blog? Mostly he seems to want to sleep. He says he has jet lag. Maybe if he knew you would read and leave him comments he'd get motivated. Do you know if any other lions have their own blogs?

On June 15, 2007, Roary said...
Please tell Louis he is invited to come visit me here. He's always welcome, and we do have a lot of catching up to do since we left Lyon.

No, I don't know about any others in the pride having blogs, but maybe they would consider it. I have found that it's really quite simple to set up something like this.

Roary ^..^

On June 15, 2007, Wanderlust Scarlett said...
Wow, Bonnie and Roary that is so great! Absolutely brilliant!

It's a beautiful looking blog too... what a lot of work! We look forward to visiting it often.

Scarlett & Viaggiatore