Oftentimes, here at Greenpacks we write about how our animal friends don’t get their due, or are just plain mistreated.

Well, that is not always the case.

Is there a thorn here somewhere?

Repeat after me, “I wish I were a lion…I wish I were a Lion…”

A British zookeeper, Alex Larenty, (no relation to our Alex here at GP, of course) is pictured giving Jamu the lion a relaxing massage.

I wish I were a lion. I wish I were a lion.

After the massage, Jamu had dinner.

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Thomas Doerflein (44) died of natural causes, a heart attack. Berlin investigators said “other causes of death, in particular involvement by another party, are ruled out from a medical point of view”.

Thomas became famous as the keeper of Knut, a polar bear. Doerflein hand-reared Knut, spending some 150 straight days with cub giving him milk and porridge and telling him stories of how he didn’t have to worry about melting glaciers because the big bear maker in the sky would care for him.

Doeflein (sounds like ‘doer of fine’ things) made front page news when he died. I remember when my dad died. We were all sad to seem him go, but for the most part we could understand his death. It happens. The problem was his miniature poodle Samson. Samson just walked about looking sad and wondering where his master was. This is my question – Who’s going to tell Knut that his keeper is gone?