"A friend had been to the 'exotic animals' department at Harrods and announced, rather grandly, that she wanted a camel," says Rendall.



"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 out — and there, in a small cage, was a gorgeous little lion cub. We were shocked. We looked at each other and said something's got to be done about that."



Harrods, it turned out, was also quite keen to be rid of Christian, who had escaped one night, sneaked into the neighbouring carpet department — then in the throes of a sale of goatskin rugs — and wreaked havoc.



The store, which had acquired the cub from Ilfracombe zoo, happily agreed to part with him for 250 guineas. So began Christian's year as an urban lion.

John Rendall and Ace Berg continued to make sporadic visits to Kenya, but mostly they followed Christian's adventures from afar.



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,

though Adamson warned them that it would almost certainly be a wasted mission.



"Christian hasn't been here for nine months. We have no reason to think he's dead — there have been no reports of lions poached or killed. But he may never come back," he said.



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 lions — particularly between lions and men.



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."





-- Edited by ddvmor at 22:41, 2008-07-11