Read Online Lion Called Christian by Anthony Bourke - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Anthony Bourke
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visitors to come into the compound with him, except for children who could accidentally be knocked over. A lion prepared to play "wheelbarrows" must have, in addition to a sense of humor, a love for the human race.
Sometimes when it rained he grew quite wild, and then we stayed outside the compound. There was a difficult period when he became aware that he could easily prevent us from leaving the compound by jumping up and holding us with his large front paws. Our smacks just made him more determined. Smacking a lion in a situation such as this required considerable audacity. But within a few days he realized that behavior like this was self-defeating, for it meant we spent less time with him. He decided it was best to continue to cooperate.
We had bought Christian when he was very young, and it had taken months for us to build up our relationship with him. We admired the courage Bill and Virginia had shown playing their roles in the film Born Free and working with a cast of many adult lions. There was less opportunity for them to develop relationships that were similar to ours with Christian. As we were soon to leave for Africa, it was pointless for him and Virginia to become too friendly with Christian, but they often came down to his compound to see him. When they were with him, because of their experience with lions, they handled him well.
Christian's life at Leith Hill continued to be filmed, with particular emphasis on the beginnings of his rehabilitation. He had a strong fascination for the documentary director James Hill, and most of our time was spent preventing Christian from jumping on him. James insisted that he was not frightened but just did not want "to have my new trousers torn." He seemed to have new trousers on each day we filmed, and he directed more comfortably from outside the compound.
Bill decided to film Christian's first visit to an English beach. We were not enthusiastic; 3 A.M. is an unappealing time to begin a day, and we knew that it would be us Christian would trample on during the sixty miles there and back. He was now too big to travel in a car, so we went in Bill and Virginia's Dormobile, a motorized caravan. It was the first English beach we had seen as well, and it was gray, dismal, and deserted. But there was a beautiful dawn, and we filmed several sequences of Christian and the four of us running along the beach. He had no intention of getting wet. He enjoyed the outing, but finally tired of waiting on the leash each time until the cameras were positioned. It was unwise to irritate a lion of his size, so we took him home. His paw marks must have confused bathers later in the day.
Christian had now been at Leith Hill for ten weeks, and his life there was losing its attraction. And for us, too, our caravan seemed to shrink in size daily. There had been days of incessant rain, and we found the continuing delays depressing. Christian was becoming frustrated again, and the strain we had felt during his last weeks at Sophistocat returned. He occasionally climbed the wire of his compound. We hoped that this was just a way of attracting our attention rather than an attempt to escape, but we added an overhang for security.
On August 12, 1970 Christian celebrated his first birthday. Unity made him a birthday cake of minced meat. It had one candle on top, and before Christian ate it and the cake, we made a wish that he would soon be in Kenya.
W e had to prepare Christian for his journey to Kenya, as the long flight to Nairobi would be an ordeal. He was to fly with East African Airways, and regulations required him to travel by crate in the pressurized hold. It was an eleven-hour flight, but because Christian would be put in his crate at Leith Hill, he faced at least fifteen hours of confinement. When Bill was making arrangements with the airline company, a representative said: "There seems to be a mistake, Mr. Travers. Surely you don't intend flying a lion from England to Africa--that's just
Sometimes when it rained he grew quite wild, and then we stayed outside the compound. There was a difficult period when he became aware that he could easily prevent us from leaving the compound by jumping up and holding us with his large front paws. Our smacks just made him more determined. Smacking a lion in a situation such as this required considerable audacity. But within a few days he realized that behavior like this was self-defeating, for it meant we spent less time with him. He decided it was best to continue to cooperate.
We had bought Christian when he was very young, and it had taken months for us to build up our relationship with him. We admired the courage Bill and Virginia had shown playing their roles in the film Born Free and working with a cast of many adult lions. There was less opportunity for them to develop relationships that were similar to ours with Christian. As we were soon to leave for Africa, it was pointless for him and Virginia to become too friendly with Christian, but they often came down to his compound to see him. When they were with him, because of their experience with lions, they handled him well.
Christian's life at Leith Hill continued to be filmed, with particular emphasis on the beginnings of his rehabilitation. He had a strong fascination for the documentary director James Hill, and most of our time was spent preventing Christian from jumping on him. James insisted that he was not frightened but just did not want "to have my new trousers torn." He seemed to have new trousers on each day we filmed, and he directed more comfortably from outside the compound.
Bill decided to film Christian's first visit to an English beach. We were not enthusiastic; 3 A.M. is an unappealing time to begin a day, and we knew that it would be us Christian would trample on during the sixty miles there and back. He was now too big to travel in a car, so we went in Bill and Virginia's Dormobile, a motorized caravan. It was the first English beach we had seen as well, and it was gray, dismal, and deserted. But there was a beautiful dawn, and we filmed several sequences of Christian and the four of us running along the beach. He had no intention of getting wet. He enjoyed the outing, but finally tired of waiting on the leash each time until the cameras were positioned. It was unwise to irritate a lion of his size, so we took him home. His paw marks must have confused bathers later in the day.
Christian had now been at Leith Hill for ten weeks, and his life there was losing its attraction. And for us, too, our caravan seemed to shrink in size daily. There had been days of incessant rain, and we found the continuing delays depressing. Christian was becoming frustrated again, and the strain we had felt during his last weeks at Sophistocat returned. He occasionally climbed the wire of his compound. We hoped that this was just a way of attracting our attention rather than an attempt to escape, but we added an overhang for security.
On August 12, 1970 Christian celebrated his first birthday. Unity made him a birthday cake of minced meat. It had one candle on top, and before Christian ate it and the cake, we made a wish that he would soon be in Kenya.
W e had to prepare Christian for his journey to Kenya, as the long flight to Nairobi would be an ordeal. He was to fly with East African Airways, and regulations required him to travel by crate in the pressurized hold. It was an eleven-hour flight, but because Christian would be put in his crate at Leith Hill, he faced at least fifteen hours of confinement. When Bill was making arrangements with the airline company, a representative said: "There seems to be a mistake, Mr. Travers. Surely you don't intend flying a lion from England to Africa--that's just
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