Meet Christian, The Baby Lion That Managed To Melt Our Icy Little Hearts

Posted by Ina Maier

 

This is a photo of Christian, a baby lion rescued by John Rendall and Ace Berg, lonely and cramped, from a tiny cage at Harrod's in 1969. They kept him in their flat in London, exercising him on the local church grounds until he outgrew both their flat and London altogether. Realizing they had no other choice and knowing, ultimately, that it was what was best for him, they took Christian to Kenya with the hopes of reintroducing him to the wild. They succeeded... And a year later they went back to visit him. Video of Christian, their reunion, a little bit of Whitney Houston, and the rest of their tear-jerking story coming right up.

Seriously, it's very rare that in our endless perusings of the internet, we come across something that manages to melt even our icy little hearts. OK fine, so maybe our hearts are made of rainbow-colored marshmallows in the shapes of baby animals, and if you say "lion cub," we say, "Somebody get us a kleenex." But whatever, we're too busy crying to argue semantics.

And if, somehow, that didn't quite get the tearducts flowing, the Daily Mail has all the details of Christian's life both in London and in Africa, and we've got one more photo: Christian snuffling his way through a sock drawer. Awwww...



Comments

Brian Fairbanks said:

Always my favorite YouTube story. Although I hate: a) the text and b) the music. Mute it, folks!

July 15, 2008 1:54 PM

roger said:

That reminds about Jesus Christ.

He has been called the Lion of Judah.

No matter the many times we send Him to the wilderness to be far from His presence, when we look for Him again, He will remember us and will come to us showing His not agressive but full of love.

July 15, 2008 5:27 PM

Tracy said:

ew i'm repulsed by my own susceptibility to this gag-inducing adorableness. i'm completely teary-eyed. stupid baby lion <3

July 15, 2008 5:38 PM

blondage said:

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

*sniffle*

July 15, 2008 8:34 PM

chachina said:

you think it made you all teary? try being preggo and watching this. it turned me into complete mush.

oh, and it reminds me of my golden retreiver Emma jumping up on my husband :-)

July 15, 2008 9:33 PM

L1z said:

It was so touching

July 16, 2008 9:04 PM

in