The sweet story of Christian, the Lion

One day, Australians John Rendall and Anthony Bourke bought from Harrods department store of London in 1969 a LION:

Christian was originally acquired by Harrods from the now-defunct zoo park in Ilfracombe. Rendall would later recall that the department store was eager to sell the cub, which had escaped from his cage one night and destroyed the merchandise in the carpet department. Rendall and Bourke purchased Christian for 250 guineas

Christian was separed from his parents, and he was just some weeks old.
They hosted him as if he was some kitten, in the backyard of the furniture store where they were working: they've learned to love him as you can love some kitten; Rendall and Bourke also got the permission from a local vicar to exercise Christian at a church graveyard.
But after some time the growing size and the increasing cost of his care led Rendall and Bourke to understand they could not keep him in London, the details can be found in the articles i'll link.
The visit to the furniture store of Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, stars of the film Born Free, and their meet-up with Christian, changed the Lion's future.

So, they decided to put him in the hands of George Adamson ( en.wikipedia.org... ).
After one year, George decided to release Christian to the wild: (in the meantime many things happened, even tragic ones ).

But his former owners decided to go looking for him to see whether Christian would remember them. George, told them by phone that it would have been a waste of time, since Christian wasn't showing himself since nine months.

But they've decided to go there anyway, hoping to see that sweet friend once again, for the last time.

What do you think it has happened?
Whatch, and enjoy

Sources
en.wikipedia.org...
www.bornfree.org.uk...
www.youtube.com...
www.fatheroflions.org...
animal.discovery.com...

Hi internos, here is our “special” mutual Lion friend Christian, but now the full story.
I didn’t know if you saw it before, so to be shore I did post it.
Enjoy it my friend.















[edit on 7/5/10 by spacevisitor]

I am really shocked, because I just see at internos profile the following unbelieveble message.

This user is banned and comments have been disabled.

Is this really true, and if so, may I ask for the reason why?

This post fits exactly in this thread and it is meant as a personal homage for my dear friend internos.

Incredible Video of a Man's Reunion With a Gorilla.
The Aspinall Foundation is a charity that promotes wildlife conservation and reintroduces captive gorillas back into the wild in West Africa.
Five years ago, conservationist Damian Aspinall released a gorilla, Kwibi, into the jungles of Gabon.
Aspinall returned recently to reunite with a now ten-year-old Kwibi.

How did the reunion go? Most extraordinary event since Christian the Lion.

Wow!
I remember when I first watched that video! It was on the news too.

Amazing!