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In Lions
What was Christian the Lion?
Firstly, he was a who not a what. In 1969 to men called John Rendall and Anthony (Ace) Bourke had recently moved to London from Australia and they were Christmas shopping… in Harrods, which still exists today. They saw in the Animal Department, 2 lion cub siblings, one male and one female. (Nowadays, adopting lions from shops isn't allowed, and Harrods wouldn't sell them anyway.) They were born in Ilfracombe zoo, in Devon, which no longer exists, 3 girls and one boy, and the male and one female were taken to be sold in Harrods. John and Ace decided to buy the male and since Harrods was decorated for Christmas, named him Christian. He lived with them in a shop called Sophisticat on The Kings Road, Chelsea, London. One day, Virginia Mckenna and Bill Travers , stars of the film Born Free about a lion, Elsa, (search for her story because it will take forever to write about that), came to buy some furniture, not even knowing a lion lived there! Christian was growing fast, and was becoming far to big to live in the basement of a shop, even if it did have a lot of rooms. John and Ace ended up in a caravan at the back of their garden, and Christian roamed free and celebrated his first Birthday there. Now, Virginia and Bill knew George Adamson, who, with his wife, raised Elsa, the real story of the film that Virginia and Bill starred in. George lived and Kenya, and was planning to make a pride of lions. Christian was released in 1970 in Kenya, and a year later, John and Ace went to visit him. George warned that he might not remember them, but they both stayed positive and went to Kenya anyway. George was wrong! Christian remembered them and ran to them giving lion versions of hugs to them as they embraced him. The reunion is available to see on YouTube and, I must say, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. By 1964, Christian had his own cubs, but something sad had happend. John and Ace had seen him for the last time. Newspaper articles say that the final reunion was 1964, but George Adamson had said it was 1963. Christian was never seen again. Well, never seen by George, Ace or John anyway. There are books about him, Christian the lion, A lion called Christian and Christian the lion: My scrapbook. There are also films and other stuff, films like Christian: the lion at the worlds end and a documentary called The lion cub from Harrods. Phew, that took a long time to write. :) (MORE)
