This Just Makes Me Feel Good

I love this video about Christian the Lion! Shauna showed it to me yesterday, and I spent half an hour watching it and crying. It's the sweetest thing.

I love that these two men, who loved this cat so much, and raised it and cared for it, did the ultimately selfless thing and took it to Africa, so that it could live it's life as it was born to do, with a family of it's own.

We did some research about Christian on the internet, and there are dozens of sites about him. Movies were made about him and one book was written, which is now out of print. Just for a bit of information, the following is an excerpt that I found on Wikipedia, as it is written in Wikipedia:

"Christian is the name of a lion bought from Harrods department store in 1969 by Australian John Rendall and his friend Ace Berg. Harrods acquired the cub from Ilfracombe zoo and sold Christian for 250 guineas - along with diet sheets to accompany him!

So began Christian's year as an urban lion. Christian was given his own living quarters (and a very large kitty-litter tray, which he used unfailingly) in the basement of the appropriately named Sophistocat furniture shop.

"He travelled by Bentley, ate in fine London restaurants and spent his days lounging in a furniture shop." The furniture shop was on the King's Road in London. It sold tables, wardrobes, chairs and desks. For a year, the Big Cat was part of it all, cruising the streets in the back of a Bentley, popping in for lunch at Casserole, a local restaurant, even posing for a Biba fashion advert. The vicar of the Moravian Chapel nearby was approached to allow Christian the run of the graveyard, and every day he was taken there to roar around and play football.

Within a year, Christian grew from 35 lbs to 185 lbs and a chance meeting sealed his new life. Actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna of Born Free walked into the shop to buy a pine desk and suggested that he be taken to Kora National Reserve, Kenya, where he was rehabilitated into the wild by the 'Lion Man', George Adamson.

Throughout Christian's rehabilitation into the wild, John Rendall and Ace Berg continued to make sporadic visits. In 1974, George Adamson wrote to say that the pride was self-sufficient. Christian was defending it. There was a litter of cubs. They were feeding themselves and rarely returned to camp.

Rendall and Ace decided to travel to Kora one last time, in the hope of being able to say goodbye, though Adamson warned them that it would almost certainly be a wasted mission as Christian had not been seen for 9 months.

As per the Daily Mail Interview:

"Christian arrived last night, " he said simply. "He's here with his lionesses and his cubs. He's outside the camp on his favourite rock. He's waiting for you."

Adamson and his wife Joy often talked about the mysterious, apparently telepathic communication skills of lions - particularly between lions and men. Both believed that lions were possessed of a sixth sense and George was convinced that a scientific explanation would one day be found. And here, it seemed, was the proof.

"Christian stared at us in a very intense way," says Rendall. "I knew his expressions and I could see he was interested. We called him and he stood up and started to walk towards us very slowly.

"Then, as if he had become convinced it was us, he ran towards us, threw himself on to us, knocked us over, knocked George over and hugged us, like he used to, with his paws on our shoulders.

"Everyone was crying. We were crying, George was crying, even the lion was nearly crying."

"The lionesses were far from pleased. There was a lot of growling and spitting," continues Rendall.

"'George said: 'This isn't safe - we'd better go.' So we each put a hand on Christian's back and he walked with us back to camp."

The reunion party went on all night and into the morning. Leaving his exhausted companions to go to their beds, Christian returned to his pride.

"We watched him go back to the two lionesses, who were not at all happy with this man, smelling of nicotine, whisky and humans," says Rendall.

"He just walloped the two of them with his paw, then collapsed."

And that was the last anyone ever saw of him.

You can see the video of their final meeting here.

For the next 14 years, George Adamson remained at Kora National Reserve, rehabilitating several other lions and ignoring warnings from the authorities, who did not consider it safe for him to stay. Then, in 1989, he was ambushed and murdered by bandits. He died with a gun in his hand and, in accordance with his wishes, was buried at Kora.

Following his death, his supporters formed the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust, which now does work in Kora as well as in Tanzania, where it is reintroducing the endangered black rhino and hunting dog. The trust's chief aim is keep alive Adamson's dream of a place where animals can roam free - a fitting epitaph not just for the great conservationist but also for the lion who once lived in Chelsea.

A movie titled Christian the Lion at World's End was made documenting the translocation of Christian from England to Kenya."