Lion suffer-i's

 Dear Reader,                                                      Hello from Pratima Agnihotri. Here is a promise. Yes, today onwards, at the end of our daily blog, there would be a quote and a word related to the theme of the blog. Since the practice begins today, let us look at the related quote and the word right in the beginning. Remember, though, tomorrow onwards, both would appear blog finally. 

Quote of the day: "Dominate your day like a lion, resolute and focussed." 

Word of the day: leonine: like a lion (The king had a leonine presence.)

Let us get back to our blog. Look at the title. Do you think it refers to lion safaris, currently very much in vogue? No, not really. Our blog refers to the lovely, true and most heart-warming stories of lions in trouble, actually asking for human help, and thereby bonding with humans.

Lions are lonesome animals actually. That is to say, they prefer their own prides, and surely they cannot be domesticated. They are not pets, however excessively cute their cubs may appear. By nature, wild and ferocious, they have an aggressive presence, with a weight and a bite that can be lethal. 

In the African savannah grasslands --- I am referring to this region because the YouTube videos present the 'be(a)st' accounts from this region --- the rules rangers and veterinarians follow are, never anthropomorphise and never interfere, however (un)natural it may appear to do so. 

Yet human(e) instincts overtake, and humans help these gorgeous lords of the forest, either saving a drowning cub, or bringing up a cub rejected by the pride as it is too weak or caring for a cub which strayed too far in its playfulness, and thus got lost. At times, even the adult lions seek human help, wounded, or harassed due to a draught, or by the traps set by dicey poachers, supported by the high stake international  market in lion parts.  At times, the doggoes fetch or protect a lost cub.

Thus begins the lovely healing process, most often highly educative for the human beings involved as it shows that the beasts are no brutes. In fact, their cognition process, scientifically and objectively analysed during the contact,  is so complex that they assess the good intentions intelligently, regally allow interventions, and, yes, they remember the timely help.

I have impulsively (and almost compulsively) watched so many such YouTube videos (no, they are not AI generated 'creations' because names and places are clearly mentioned) that I know almost by heart the responses and gestures of lions, the stages in the growth of a cub, and, ah, yes, the lovely descriptions of the African safaris, the sunrises, the sunsets, the storms. 

No wonder, the Romantic poets such as Coleridge whom I adore, would, like me, swear by Shakespeare who summed it up best: "The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,/Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;/And as imagination bodies forth/The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen/Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing/A local habitation and a name." May I add to 'the poet's eye', the camera's (and the reader's/viewer's) eye to make the quote complete(ly relevant)?

Pratima@Who needs expensive safaris when you have "imagination all compact" and YouTube videos that help you visualise lion suffer-i's showing all that is humane in inter-species bonds!?!