Sometime in 1951, after a 6 day Snodgrass binge, Jacob the Muskrat wrote the poem he is best known for. The most famous passage is shown below

Muskrat Howl Part 1
by Jacob Muskrat

For Carl Muskrat

I saw the best muskrats of my generation destroyed by alligators, fleeing, hysterical, dragging their emaciated winter bodies through the Monte Negro wetlands at dawn, looking for an angry mix of reeds and grasses.
Furry headed rodents, pining for the safe warmth of their ancestral lodges, in the celestial still of icy winter,
who, shivering and bony sat on hindquarters nibbling on snodgrass in the alien calm of night,
and climbed high atop snow whited hills
sniffing frozen air and contemplating crickets,
Who pushed teeth to twig and paw to mud and head to ground under quarter moon and saw the angelic form of the Great Muskrat dancing on the Earthen roofs from lodge to lodge by starlight,
who pranced through Coyote Den and python nest wide eyed dreaming Siberia and Rodentine sonnets among the shadows of predator...

Merry Chirstmas, everybody. I hope you are enjoying some fried chicken and Christmas Cake with your family.

I spent part of Christmas Eve drawing lions. What if you were born a king but that isn't what you wanted? What if you had to live your entire life doing a king's job, like hunting for foxes and other kingly things? It would be sad to have to live a life like that. I hope this lion's wish comes true on Christmas.

I wanted to draw this lion on two different types of paper to compare the difference. I used mostly the same colors of acrylic ink to paint him. The lion on the left (lefty) is painted on cold press water color paper, and the lion on the right (Jean-Bobo) is painted on Rives Print Making Paper. The water color paper doesn't absorb as much so the colors might seem brighter. The print making paper gives the lion a different texture.
I decided to frame Lefty the Lion, and here is how he looks. Jean-Bobo says he prefers to live outside of a frame. Lefty the Lion will be a Christmas present for a good friend I have met here in America.