What it was like in the Serengeti

Take a look at what National Geographic has put together about the Serengeti, where I was born.  Lion prides have nothing to shield us from the elements.  In rainstorms, we huddle together and lick the raindrops off each others' coats.  Click here to see more:  The Serengeti Lions.

How Bonnie and I got together

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

Going ... going ...

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

Invitation to "Tell us a story"

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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)

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.

Read the rest of the New York Times story by Nicholas Wade — dated October 9, 2007 — here.

I'm back

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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