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Claim: Video clip shows the reunion of two men with Christian, a lion they had raised as a cub.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, June 2008]
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.
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 "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 Harrods, it turned out, was also quite keen to be rid of Christian, who had escaped one night, sneaked into the neighbouring carpet The store, which had acquired the cub from Ilfracombe zoo, happily agreed to part with him for By chance, one day Bill Travers and Virginia 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.
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.''
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, "Christian hasn't been here for nine months. We have no reason to think he's 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 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." Last updated: 7 July 2008 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  Sources:
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