When you meet all the animals whose portraits you paint, sometimes they die. And you learn about it. Most of them have lived long and well-cared for lives, but not all. When I learn another has passed, it suddenly makes them seem more real than ever.
The most recent to pass was Rudi Valentino. He was really the first orangutan I spent hours with and was the gateway being to make me such an orangutan fan. I met Rudi at the Houston Zoo in 2014. Most every afternoon he was sitting high on his scaffolding for hours on end. We stared at one another. I talked to him. When I went back to the zoo a few years later, it was August and hotter and he wasn’t out as much.
![](https://i0.wp.com/dawnsiebel.com/wp-content/uploads/Rudi-Valentino.jpg?resize=700%2C700&ssl=1)
Rudi was a hybrid orangutan. Half Sumatran, half Bornean. Born before they decided they were two separate species. For this reason, Rudi was never a father himself. When he died a few weeks back, he was the oldest male orangutan in North America. He had just turned 45. He had advanced heart disease. Although it’s not listed in my shop, I do have 20×20 prints of this portrait available if interested.
Here are two more Rudi portraits:
![](https://i0.wp.com/dawnsiebel.com/wp-content/uploads/Rudi-S-B-Orangutan-1.jpg?resize=700%2C700&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/dawnsiebel.com/wp-content/uploads/Rudi-11x14.jpg?resize=236%2C300&ssl=1)
The first animal I painted who I learned had died was a shock to me. He was quite young. Not 4 years old. I had met him at the Denver Zoo in November 2015 when he was the very proud papa of twins. I had just finished his portrait and another of a beautiful okapi when I reached out to the zoo to learn the okapi’s name. It was Almasi. I mentioned I had just finished a portrait of Sango when they said “it’s so sad about Sango.” What !?!?!?
Beautiful Sango had died before his portrait was finished – less than 5 months after I met him. He couldn’t stand one day he was shaking so badly. Scans and tests showed a deformed pancreas, I think, and liver problems. I may be fuzzy on the details. Not survivable to be sure. I hope it was not anything genetic that could be passed on to his cubs. I fell for him hard that day we met.
![](https://i0.wp.com/dawnsiebel.com/wp-content/uploads/Sango-website.jpg?resize=700%2C700&ssl=1)
And then, several years later, I learned the beautiful okapi Almasi also was no more. I think her death was old age, as with Rudi, but I do not know for sure. Her keeper, who was in charge of all hoofed animals at the Denver Zoo said she was the sweetest of all.
![](https://i0.wp.com/dawnsiebel.com/wp-content/uploads/Okapi.jpg?resize=700%2C696&ssl=1)
No living thing lives forever. Except perhaps in our hearts for as long as we live. They live in mine.
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