"I meant every word and every tear"

The Babe stepped out briefly to see which way the wind was blowing in the wake of a winter storm, December, 2005.

"I am glad that anything that I have said could be helpful; I meant every word and every tear," emailed Carol Ward during yesterday's snowy, snowy New Year's Eve:

As Snowball has been going through her health issues the past three years, I have had to think long and hard about Snowball's role in our life. I decided I needed to invert that, and focus on our role in her life.

It is the same with Baby. You fed him, took care of him, and showed the world what a beauty he was. You let him be vulnerable with you and never lose his dignity. You loved him — that was your role.

And he loved you in return. Seems like a good trade. The pain of losing someone you love was going to be there no matter when or how Baby died. Would you have traded the pleasure to not have the pain?

I have enjoyed the Baby photo retrospective. A number of them made me smile the first time around, and made me smile again. What a lucky cat he was to live with you. What lucky people you were to be able to take care of him. And what lucky people we readers were to see such amazing, beautiful portraits.

For you, Carol, and all of Cakes's cherished circle of admirers, more seasonal images from the Baby photo retrospective, "The Lion King in Winter":

"Baby steps out into the Kitty Play Yard this afternoon to case the joint," we captioned this image in January of 2005 when "with 2 1/2 feet of snow in the side yard — what with drifting, not to mention steady snowfall — we started shoveling out over the bottom half of the Dutch door, moving on outside to carve a path to the little house plus a side route to the patio table, a good place for poodies to jump up and command a larger view.

"Baby steps out onto the front porch to gauge meteorological conditions," we captioned these images in our January 2005 post "When the snow lay round about."

The Lion King is dead. Long live the Lion King!

Comments

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Tears without end, gladly spilled to see an image of the wondrous Lion King.

Thank you Sissy.

Sending hugs.