Christian the Lion Reunited, A Feel Good Story

 A Feel Good Story : Christian the Lion Reunited

In 1969 a young Australian, John Rendall and his friend Ace Bourke, bought a small lion cub from Harrods pet department, which was then legal.

'Christian' was kept in the basement of a furniture shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea, the heart of the swinging sixties.

Loved by all, the affectionate cub ate in a local restaurant, played in a nearby graveyard, but was growing fast....

A chance encounter with Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna led to a new life for Christian.

He came to live in a huge enclosure and to sleep in a caravan at their Surrey home.

Then in 1971 he was flown to Kenya, his ancestral home, and returned to the wild by lion-man George Adamson.

Nine months later in 1972, John and Ace returned to Kora in Kenya.

This clip is of their reunion at that time.

It was an emotional reunion: "He ran towards us, threw himself onto us, knocked us over and hugged us, with his paws on our shoulders." John Rendall