Nuka and Dair: Redux

I felt like redrawing one of my old pieces!  Which...  As it turns out, was a redraw of an older piece, which I seem to have deleted.
Here's the "original".

Art and Dair are© Me, thank you
Nuka is © to Disney

I refuse to accept Nuka's death in TLK2.  In my head, he survived the avalanche of logs, and was taken in by a nearby pride of lions.  After his near-death experience, Nuka realises that he has to start living for himself, and that it's toxic to live to only please others and get their attention.  He settles down with a nice lioness and has a cub or two or three, one being Dair.
His mane is a bit more filled out than when the incident happened, of course, because he's older and better groomed.
I chose to put them in the jungle, because I think that after the log avalanche, Nuka wouldn't want to be anywhere near a gorge or lots of dead trees, nor would he want to be anywhere near a place where a brushfire would likely start.  He probably wouldn't return to the Outlands either, since that place holds sad memories for him.

How do you feel about Nuka's "death"?