Lion Called Christian (5 page)

Lunch with model Emma Breeze at the Casserole Restaurant in the King's Road, Chelsea.

Christian with Mark at Todd's Hairdressers in the World's End.

In the flat above Sophisticat.

Top:
Radio presenter Jack de Manio tries to interview Christian, who failed to "roar" for the listeners, for the BBC.

Bottom:
Christian meeting Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers in Sophisticat.

Watching out for customers at Sophisticat.

Playing hide-and-seek in the Moravian Close.

It was easy to recognize a psychological pattern of behavior in him that could be interpreted in human terms. While this is anthropomorphic, to us aspects of his personality did resemble a human's personality. His "sense of humor" seemed very similar to ours. If he tripped over something, and with his huge paws he tended to be rather clumsy for a lion, he appeared "embarrassed" but would quickly pretend, as most people do, that nothing had happened. It seemed lions can communicate with humans much more closely than almost all other animals can. We were realizing that the two most powerful predators in the world have so much in common.

Christian's personality was immense, and his presence entirely filled the shop and our lives. We realized that if the months he was to live with us were to be as happy for him as we intended, he had to be allowed as much natural expression as possible. For him to remain the content, even-tempered animal he was, it was necessary, in addition to giving him all the time and affection we had, to minimize any restriction.

We attained a relationship of mutual respect, with no hint from him of domestic-animal subservience. We made no attempt to dominate or train him, and in our experience this would probably have had disastrous consequences. Besides, it is doubtful if a lion can ever be totally dominated, perhaps just precariously controlled. And a lion's respect is not easily earned. Christian had a determined character, but he seemed to realize that he had to cooperate, and he quickly knew what sort of behavior would not be allowed. Neither of us has had any contact with circus animals or animals used in live entertainment. One can only guess at the psychological games, bribes, rewards, and punishments involved in getting animals to perform. In 2003 Roy, half of the Las Vegas double act Siegfried and Roy, was attacked by a tiger during one of their animal illusionist performances.

Christian hated being ignored, and was very conscious of the effect he had on people. He could not resist testing the reactions of newcomers, and always remembered if people had not coped well with him previously. Like all animals he always knew when someone was uncomfortable around him, and would take advantage of this. If customers had not noticed him sitting on the stairs in the shop, he would grunt to attract their attention. From this commanding position, his paws knocked off several hats and pairs of glasses. He was extremely curious, and his eyes were always watching and searching for anything new that had to be investigated.

It was his eyes that were his most arresting feature. They were expressive, intelligent eyes that could transmit love and trust, or they could challenge or defy us. Sometimes they had incredible clarity and brightness, but sometimes they could be opaque, unknowable, and impenetrable, and stare straight through us, beyond to a dimension from which we were excluded.

Christian possessed a memory for people and places, and demonstrated a high degree of intelligence compared to other lions we met. He quickly learned how to open the door of the basement if it was not locked. We kept his food for the day on the tops of various cupboards in the office at the back of the shop, and he frequently managed to cleverly climb high enough on other furniture, in order to stand up on his hind legs and knock his food to the floor.

Unlike most other members of the cat family, lions are gregarious and social animals living in an extended family pride. Christian undoubtedly regarded us as his family, and was tremendously affectionate toward us. Lions greet each other with a ceremonial touching of heads, and we often knelt to enable him to do this with us. Any parting from him, regardless of its duration, involved another fond greeting, a lick and a cuddle. He enjoyed being close, often either leaning against us or actually sitting on us. Sometimes lie would dramatically leap from the ground into our arms, which was a greeting for us that no one had ever seen before with lions. Of course, he could be arrogant and demanding, but if he had to be disciplined, either verbally or with a smack, he accepted it and did not bear any resentment. He was very much aware if we were displeased with him, and if he felt it was deserved, he would make obvious and usually successful attempts to win us over again.

Christian was particularly unaggressive and un-possessive about his food, which indicated that in some respects he was an exceptional lion. He had no other animals to compete with and he was fed regularly, both of which must have been contributing factors. But people who knew a great deal more about lions than we did were always astounded by his attitude toward his food. He had a healthy appetite, and in his eagerness he often knocked his food out of our hands before we had time to place it on the floor for him. But we could take his food away from him if it was necessary, even out of his mouth. He loved the marrow inside bones, but as he was unable to get it out, he gently ate it from the tips of our fingers.

Lions depend to a large extent on their mouths for communication and contact. He licked us to show his affection. His rough tongue always tested surfaces for their taste and texture. He had sharp milk teeth, and while he enjoyed mouthing our hands and arms, he quickly learned not to bite us. There were moods, however, in which his mouth just hung open, waiting to be filled. Kneecaps were a suitable height. Our clothes were often damaged by his teeth or claws getting caught, and we sometimes resorted to wearing practical bottle-green boiler suits.

A lion needs to exercise his claws and jaws. In the first few weeks, several table and chair legs were damaged. However, after a few smacks he gave this up, especially when he realized he could use the banisters on the stairs in the shop instead. Lions are creatures of habit. They are earthbound in comparison with other cats, and he did not jump all over the furniture. But he enjoyed surveying his domain from a height, and would often sit on tables and chests of drawers. Fortunately, he preferred the stairs, which gave him greater height, and he would sit with a paw dangling elegantly over the side. Actually, he damaged very little furniture, and this only occurred if he slipped and dug his claws in for support. One day, rather unwisely, a very expensive table had been elaborately set with cutlery, china, glasses, and candles in the middle of the shop. We heard the sound of breaking glass and immediately knew what had happened. In the confusion Christian had moved his weight to one side of the table, and he and the tabletop crashed to the floor. The table had been sold, and now there were several deep scratches on it. We telephoned the woman who had bought it to apologize. "Don't worry," she said, "I only came into the shop to see Christian. The table was an afterthought. Please don't worry about the scratches, they will remind me of that beautiful lion." But he could never resist attacking the mattress on a brass bed in the shop. This problem was solved only when a friend very generously brought Christian a mattress of his own and, wildly excited, like a wild lion with a kill, he expertly dragged it down to the basement, although it was much bigger and heavier than he was.

He had formidably sharp claws, and before he learned to control them, we received many scratches. But within two months he developed more control over them, and he also realized that we stopped playing with him if we were scratched. He learned to keep them sheathed, but if he was wrestling with something such as his mattress, pretending it was a zebra he had just stalked and thrown to the ground, we had to remember that his claws would instinctively be out.

Like all lions, Christian was fascinated by children and reacted differently to them, seeming to consider them a different species from adults. We were always extremely careful, and held him if children were in the shop. One day a photographer from a local newspaper was taking a photograph of him, on a leash, outside Sophistocat. A woman, probably thinking Christian was a dog, strode in front of him with her two-year-old child, also on a leash. Christian curiously extended one paw and knocked the child to the pavement. One of us grabbed Christian while the other obscured the photographer from the sort of photograph the newspapers crave. The child was slightly dazed, but so swaddled with clothes it could not possibly have been hurt. At first the mother was furious, but as she returned later with endless friends, and other children to dangle in front of Christian, she was apparently delighted with the incident.