I saw the video corresponding to this story a couple months ago. I wanted to post it, but never got around to finding it again, until today.

Christian was a lion cub who was taken from a zoo and sold in the exotic animals section a department store in London in 1969. The two men that purchased him, John Rendall and Anthony Bourke (also sometimes credited as Ace Bourke or Ace Berg), couldn't stand seeing the poor creature cramped up in the tiny cage. Christian became a city kitty and local celebrity in London until he grew too big. Rendall and Bourke decided, at that point, that he should be released into the wild. They brought him to Kenya, where wildlife conservationist George Adamson prepared Christian the lion for release back into the wild. In 1974, Rendall and Bourke traveled to Kenya again in hopes of getting to see their buddy Christian one last time.

From Christian, the lion who lived in my London living room (a more in depth story, which I definitely recommend reading if you are interested in Christian's story):

...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."

"The lionesses were far from pleased. There was a lot of growling and spitting," continues Rendall.

"'George said: 'This isn't safe - we'd better go.' So we each put a hand on Christian's back and he walked with us back to camp."

The reunion party went on all night and into the morning. Leaving his exhausted companions to go to their beds, Christian returned to his pride.

"We watched him go back to the two lionesses, who were not at all happy with this man, smelling of nicotine, whisky and humans," says Rendall.

"He just walloped the two of them with his paw, then collapsed."

And that was the last anyone ever saw of him.

Why this story is becoming widely popular now, I don't know, but it is too sweet to not share. It just shows how humans can be rewarded when we treat animals the way they deserve to be treated. And they say dog is man's best friend!

The movie about Christian is called The Lion at World's End. There is also a book, A Lion Called Christian, which is out of print and apparently hard to find.