Christian The Lion

Hi everyone, few weeks ago I so a video on youtube, it is an old but very good. I couldn’t help posting it after watching a shorter version of it for probably the 10th time and getting all teary.

In 1969, Ace Bourke and John Rendall, two young men and good friends from Australia arrived in London, England. They visited Harrods Department store (which at the time were selling exotic animals such as snakes, monkeys, and birds). In one cage, Ace and John saw a baby male lion. The baby lion was not much bigger than a house cat. The department store wanted to sell the baby lion because it had escaped from its cage the previous night and destroyed a lot of merchandise in the store. The young men decided to purchase the lion and keep him as a pet. It was a very unusual thing to do. They named the lion “Christian”. 

 Christian was a very friendly and good natured little lion. However, John and Ace didn’t know anything about raising lions. They had to rely on their experience with different pets they had when they lived in Australia. 

They lived in an apartment above “Sophistocrat” an antique pine furniture shop where they both worked. With the owner’s permission, they were able to keep the young lion, Christian, in the basement below the furniture store. Every afternoon, Ace and John took Christian to an enclosed church garden for exercise. Christian loved to play and so did John and Ace. They became very close. By this time, Christian was 35 pounds, about the size of a small dog. He continued to grow.

In a few months, he grew to weigh 185 pounds, so they had to find another place for Christian. Since Christian was almost one year old and growing stronger and larger every day, Ace and John decided to take him to Africa to meet George Adamson. Adamson was a lion expert. He had a lot of experience with lions, especially helping lions not born in wild Africa to adapt to wilderness conditions.

One year after, his former owners decided to go looking for the lion. These are the scenes of Christian’s reunion with John and Anthony and the introduction of Christian’s old family to his new one.