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I’ll bet you've
never seen a
pet like
the
one in this
Video
of the Day. In
1969,
two friends,
John Rendall
and
Ace
Berg, purchased
a lion. At the
time,
Christian
the
lion was
a
35-pound
cub.
He had been
born in a
zoo.
The friends
raised
Christian in
their
London
home. All
three
hung out in
a
friend’s
furniture shop
on the
weekends.
Within a year,
Christian had
grown to
185 lbs.
Rendall
and Berg
realized
they
couldn’t keep
him much
longer.
But
they
didn’t know
what to do with
him. A
chance
encounter
changed that.
Two
actors from the
film Born Free
walked
i
nto
the furniture
store.
The actors
recommended
a
conservationist,
George
Adamson,
living in
Kenya.
Christian was
soon in
Africa.
There he was
rehabilitated
and
released into
the
wild.
In 1974,
Rendall and
Berg
decided
to visit
Christian
one
last time. He
was
now a wild
animal. Adamson
told
them
it was doubtful
that Christian
could be
found.
No
one had seen
him in
nine
months.
The two flew to
Kenya, anyway.
On
the day they
landed,
Christian
appeared
outside
Adamson’s camp.
Somehow,
he
knew. He
waited outside
the camp
until Rendall
and
Berg
arrived.
This video was
taken during
their
reunion
with
Christian. What
a story! What a
video!
Origins:
In
1969,
Australian
John
Rendall
and
his
friend Ace
Berg (both of whom
were then living
in
London)
bought a lion cub
named Christian
from
Harrods
department store,
as the former
recounted
for the
Daily
Mail in
2007:
"A friend
had been to the
'exotic animals'
department
at Harrods
and announced,
rather grandly,
that she
wanted a
camel," says
Rendall.
"To which the
manager very
coolly replied:
'One
hump
or
two, madam?'
"Ace and I
thought this
was the most
sophisticated
repartee
we'd ever heard, so
we went along to
check
it
out -
and there,
in a small
cage, was a
gorgeous
little lion
cub. We were
shocked. We looked
at each
other and
said something's
got to be done
about that."
Harrods, it
turned out, was
also quite keen
to be
rid
of
Christian, who had
escaped one night,
sneaked
into the
neighbouring carpet
department -
then in
the
throes of a
sale of goatskin
rugs -
and wreaked
havoc.
The store,
which had
acquired the
cub from
Ilfracombe
zoo,
happily agreed to
part with him for
250
guineas. So
began
Christian's year as
an urban
lion.
For the
next year the two
men (along with
Rendall's
girl
friend and
an actress) raised
the cub in the
Sophistocat
furniture
shop, where
Christian had
living quarters in
the
basement,
and the lion became
a popular local
figure.
However,
when Christian grew
from his initial
35
lb.
to
185
lb. within
a year, his
keepers
realized their
lion
would need
to be relocated to
a more
suitable
environment.
By chance, one
day Bill
Travers and
Virginia
McKenna
-
the stars
of the 1966 film
Born
Free -
wandered
into
Sophistocat
looking for a desk.
The actors
suggested
that
conservationist
George Adamson
(whose
wife, Joy,
wrote the book
Born
Free about
their
real-life
experiences in
raising a lion cub
and
rehabilitating
it into the wild)
might be able
to
help find
an appropriate home
for Christian.
Rendall and
Berg flew with
Christian to
Nairobi,
Kenya,
where they
met up with George
Adamson,
who
helped the
lion settle into
living an
independent life
(and
integrating
into a pride with
other lions) in
Kenya's
Kora
Reserve.
The video clip
linked above shows
scenes
from
the two
men's final reunion
with Christian
several
years
later:
John
Rendall and Ace
Berg continued to
make
sporadic
visits to
Kenya, but mostly
they followed
Christian's
adventures
from afar.
Finally, 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.
The King's Road
lion had
finally adapted
to the
wild.
This was a
bittersweet
moment for all
concerned.
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. "Christian
hasn't
been here
for nine months. We
have no
reason
to
think he's
dead -
there have
been no
reports
of lions
poached or killed.
But he may
never come
back,"
he said.
Rendall recalls,
"We said:
'OK.
We
appreciate
that,
but we'll
come anyway and
see
you.'" They
flew to Nairobi
then took a
small
plane to
the camp
in
Kora, where
Adamson
came
out to meet
them. "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."
Unfortunately,
that reunion was
the last anyone saw
of
Christian,
and fourteen years
later, Christian's
protector,
George
Adamson, was
ambushed and killed
by
bandits. In
his autobiography,
Adamson wrote of
Kenya:
''Promises
of solitude, of
wild animals in a
profusion
to
delight the
heart of Noah, and
of the spice of
danger,
were always
honored. Today, of
these three, you
are
only likely
to encounter the
danger.''
Last
updated:
7 July
2008
This
story
has
been
verified
to be
TRUE
via
'Snopes'
whose
URL
is:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/christian.asp
Urban Legends
Reference Pages
© 1995-2008 by
snopes.com.
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