Christian's Birthday

Today, August 12, 2009, marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of Christian, the lion that touched the heart of millions of people around the world with his enthusiastic and loving greeting of the two men who had raised him, after they had been apart for a year.

It's amazing that so long after his death (no lion can live for more than 20 or so years) he has more fans than ever and so is accomplishing so much now for wildlife in Africa through the donations he has generated for the work of The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust and Wildlife Now.

It's amazing for me to think that I've known and promoted his story for 37 years--I still have the 1972 Readers' Digest "condensed" version of the book, which is where I first read about Christian.

I'm going to overuse the word "amazing", but Christian was an amazing lion. You can see his intelligence and spirit in his face. And John Rendall and Ace Bourke are two amazing gentlemen, and did an exceptional job in providing the most wonderful, loving care for him. The bond of love and trust between them and Christian was so great, it even amazed George Adamson, "the father of lions".

I've written a lot about Christian and what he means to us now, and how his legacy has enriched the world. You can use the search box in the right-hand column to find those articles. Or you can revisit the page about Christian that I created back in 2002--the first web page about him. Or you could visit one of the links above to make a donation to the George Adamson Trust to help today's wildlife.

And then you can re-enjoy the beautiful love of a lion for his family: