Cary Caracal Simba was transferred from the Exotic Animal Clinic to the in-patient wing of the Mental Health Center.  She was set for intense therapy directed by Dr. Lachlan Lion, in a last ditch effort to right her life and get her off of drugs. 

            Lewis Lyon, Ralph’s billionaire son, owned the land directly behind the Watering Hole Pub.  The watering hole had been greatly enhanced by Wally and the owner of the Watering Hole Condos, Grover Leoparde.  It had been widened and surrounded by concrete borders, pebbled walkways and beautifully decorated with imported shrubbery.  Lewis decided to build a group of town homes on the property he owned.  They would be much more elaborate and spacious than even the new group of condos.  When the word went out, Cynthia and Dorian Cheetah were the first to sign up and buy.  Lewis, with permission from Grover and Wally, decided to augment the watering hole to even greater prominence.  It would be more akin to a small lake than the former appearance.  He gave the contract for landscape to the Simba Garden Center.  He even went one better by giving the place, managed by Sidney and Alexander Simba, the contracts for his future homes and building projects.  There was much celebration in the deluxe trailer inhabited by Alexander and Sidney. 

            Alexander received a call from his estranged wife, Lucy Cougar Simba that same evening.

“Alex, Grandmamma Lucretia is building me an estate near hers on the Mara River. It has plenty of room for a garden if we get together again.”

“Lucy, that is too far for me to drive.  I am with the Simba Garden Center now.  Are you staying with Lucretia?”

“Yes, I am, Alex.”

“Who is tending the garden at the house?” he asked with mounting concern.

“No one.”

“You should have told me this, Lucy.  That garden of mine is valuable.”

“All you care about are your damn flowers,” she shouted, slamming the phone in his ear. 

      Alexander moved back to his house on Lyon Avenue that same evening, trying to shore up his neglected garden.  He went through the rooms filled with memories of riotous cubs and Lucy.  In the twin’s room, he placed some toys on the shelf that had been left scattered about.  He made a drink and took it to his porch.  If Lucy wasn’t going to live here any longer, he would redecorate and attempt to obliterate the memory of his active family.  He would keep the kid’s rooms in tact for visitations of which there had been none to date.  Three days later he received notice from Leoparde & Bonobo law offices that Lucy had filed for divorce. 

            He sat across the desk from Grover Leoparde and worked with the lawyer to carve out an agreement and settlement regarding the divorce.  He agreed to every third weekend with his cubs, child support payments and the full ownership of his much loved home on Lyon Avenue.  He called CHANGING SPOTS that same day and asked for an estimate for redecoration.  They sent their chief decorator and her assistant.  

            Maude Lyon arrived in a huffy mood due to her assistant, Tina Thompson-Gazelle Okapi’s nervous driving.  She leaned on the doorbell of Alexander’s home in intimidating impatience.  He answered and invited the lioness and gazelle to enter and offered them tea. 

“You Simbas have certainly come up in the world,” grumbled Maude, whose stance on that pride had been greatly softened by her daughter-in-law, Stella Simba Lyon (Roy Lee and Janice’s daughter). 

“I suppose we have, Mrs. Lyon,” answered Alexander.  “It’s all due to Roy Lee.”

Maude cast a jaundiced eye around his living room. 

“I’ve never seen a room so froufrou in my born days,” snarled the irascible old lioness.  “Do you have a wife?”

“I did but we are divorcing.  That’s the reason I’m redecorating.”

“I figured you were either queer or had a wife that did this.  Who’d you marry?”

“Lucy Cougar.”

“Oh hell, she’s half leopard and American cougar.  Leopards and the Americans have never had any taste.”

“Yes Mam,” agreed Alexander who wanted no problems with this lioness whose reputation preceded her.

Maude followed by the pregnant Tina, went about the various rooms accompanied by Alexander. 

“I see there are children in the house. Do you want their rooms redecorated?” asked Maude.

“No mam, just the master bedroom, kitchen and other rooms are all I want for now.”

“Good choice, young lion.  No reason to ever decorate children’s rooms with their terrible habits.”

            On the return ride from Alexander’s home, Maude turned to Tina and said,” That’s the only Simba beside Stella that I’ve ever seen with manners.  He called me ‘mam’.

Maude Lyon and her assistant, Tina Thompson-Gazelle Okapi.....

            There was a gathering of some brothers from the Simba pride in the Watering Hole Pub.  The group consisted of Alexander, Sidney, Sloane and Simon.  Two were in high spirits, one was middling and the other seemed wounded and depressed.  Sidney and Simon were jocular and merry.  Alexander was on the cusp not knowing whether to celebrate his defunct marriage or not and last but not least, Sloane was in agony over Caroline’s marriage to Leland.  The one factor they had in common that evening was the ordering of countless drinks.  Their aim, no matter the cause, was to get sloshed.  After the first three, Alexander perked up realizing that he was free from a nagging wife and a career he had begun to hate.  There was no relief for Sloane with any amount of drink.  He ended up taking Landa Jaguar to his bush home with her behind the wheel.  Simon chose Cameron Caracal for his evening lay although she worked in his law firm.  Alexander chose to go dateless with Sidney to his Lyon Avenue home and get even drunker before both crashed there.  . 

            The next morning, despite their differing moods of the night before, they all had equally insufferable hangovers.  Sloane made it to the State House ten minutes late to find a wan Caroline returned from her honeymoon.

“How is marriage treating you?” he asked her in a failed attempt at acidity. 

She burst into tears and ran to the break area, and began pouring coffee in a Styrofoam cub.  He followed. 

“Why are you crying, Caroline?  Aren’t newlyweds supposed to be lyrical with happiness?”

“I’m crying because I am so in love with you, Sloane.”

“I seem to be missing something here, Caroline.  You are so in love with me but you’ve just come off your honeymoon with another male.  Is there something about this scenario that I’m not getting?”

“I’m pregnant and I do have great affection for Leland,” she said, breaking into a freshet of tears. . 

“Talk about spots,” he mumbled, lighting a cigarette.

“What?”

“Nothing…nothing.  Caroline, you have just ruined three lives.  You are due for a big major boohoo.  You have ruined mine because I feel the same way about you that you do me.  You have fucked your own up and God help that poor leopard chap.”

“I’m going to resign from here, Sloane and just keep my cooking show,” she said, blowing her nose on his proffered handkerchief. 

“No you’re not, Caroline.  If you do that I won’t see you anymore and I don’t think I can take not having you in my sight at least for the work day.”

“Sloane, if you hadn’t made that crack about not wanting spotted kids, none of this would have happened.”

“I know this, Caroline, and I will kick my ass forever for that statement.  If I could have you back I would welcome kids with spots and even zebra stripes.”

She began to giggle, placing a paw on his. 

“It’s not the end yet, Sloane.  Don’t give up until the fat lady sings.”

“Do you have a game plan in mind, Caroline?  I don’t get what can be done about this.  You are pregnant and married to another guy.  If you know something I don’t, please share.”

She stood up and gave him a kiss on the lips.

“I have to go to Maurice’s office and work on Shane’s press conference for this afternoon. I’ll see you later.”

And she was off, leaving him shaking his head.

“I cannot believe you, Caroline,” said her sister, Chelsea Cheetah Cougar. 

They were seated in the living room of the house Chelsea shared with her architect husband, Clint Cougar.

“I’ve made a mess of things,” moaned Caroline.

“That’s a mild statement, Sis.  How are you going to extricate yourself from this marriage to Leland who is such a great chap?”

“I don’t know.  I have to think of something that won’t hurt Leland.  He is a wonderful male.”

“Well forget not hurting him, Caroline.  That’s a given that he’s going to have the living shit kicked out of him.  You might want to think of one thing while you’re at it.  Sloane Simba is basically a son-of-a-bitch and Leland is anything but that.”

            Leah Simba Lyon flew with her husband, Ashley, to England to return his son, Arlon, after his spring break from the university there.  Arlon had a poignant leave taking of his mother, Betty Simba.  He had also told his grandparents goodbye, receiving a new computer from Ralph and Mildred Lyon.  He had spent a great deal of his trip, staying in their comfortable home in the Lyon pride compound.  The Lyons had treasured this time with their grandson.  Ralph and Mildred had formed a tight bond with Arlon.  Ralph Lyon had finally given in to having a personal computer in his retirement and rather enjoyed it.  He and Arlon swore to email each other weekly.  Ralph and Mildred would be in London with Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton the following month and would call Arlon and have him stay with them in their hotel suite.  Ashley Lyon was delighted at his son’s firm bond with his parents.

“Fifi, you’re getting a belly,” commented Shane Simba, one evening in the privacy of their bedroom. 

Betty poked out her growing stomach and rubbed it proudly. 

“I seem to be pregnant,” she giggled. 

“Is that it?” he laughed.  “I thought you might have consumed a cantaloupe whole.  I was considering CPR but maybe I’ll do something else instead.”

            Leland Leoparde made plans to build next door to his brother, Luke, in the bush country.  He was married and expecting a litter of his own with Caroline.  The cub that Caroline already had was growing rapidly and needed space to stretch his legs.  Caroline, with suggestions from Leland, had re-dubbed Shane Simba, Jr. the name that Shane and Betty had given him.  The name Sunny fit the chubby cub that looked as if he had nothing but lion genes in his makeup.  He was always laughing and cheerful, seldom having a cross moment.  He was the apple of Cynthia and Dorian Cheetah’s eyes.  Everyone that came in contact with Sunny fell in immediate love.

            The result of Maude Lyon’s redecoration of Alexander Simba’s home was anything but froufrou.  The lioness gave his house a decidedly but very attractive masculine appearance.  He gave a party the week after, inviting his friends, brothers and mother, Leander. 

            Shane Simba took Sloane to Namibia with him.  That government had requested consultation on the progress in Kenya with the AIDS battle, conservation and several other issues.  They stayed in a hotel, not wanting to stay in the guest house of the president.  This time, there was no hanky panky.  Shane and Sloane worked late hours with the president and key ministers, going to their hotel and getting a late dinner and climbing in the sack – alone.   They were gone three days, arriving in the Mara on a late afternoon.  Betty welcomed her husband with open arms.  Sloane went home to his lonely bush home and renewed grief for Caroline.