One morning in July, Tina came downstairs and saw Mom and Dad talking at the kitchen table. Mom saw Tina standing at the doorway. She smiled at Tina, but her smile was missing in the sunshine.

“Good morning, my little treasure,” Dad said. “Could I talk to you about something?” “OK.” Tina said. “You know that Dad has a very important job,” Mom said. Tina nodded. “He helps keep people safe.” Tina said.

“That’s right,” Dad said. “Sometimes that means I need to help people who live far away from us,” he paused (停顿).

“When I do that, I have to leave you and Mom for a while.” Tina looked at Mom then at Dad. ”Are you going away?” she asked. Dad nodded. “Dad, how long is a while?” “In order to really help,” he said, “I have to go back home in July next year.” After Dad said this, Tina couldn’t hear anything but the tick-tock of the clock on the wall. Then Tina felt tears started to roll down her cheeks.

Tina didn’t want her dad to leave her. That’s because Dad is her favorite person. Dad and Tina do lots of fun things together. They can spend a whole day playing table tennis. They play musical instruments together. Dad plays the drums, and Tina plays the cymbals. Mother calls them “rock stars”.

“But if you are away for that long,” said Tina, “won’t you forget me?” Mom put her hand on Tina’s back and Dad pulled her and Tina into a big hug. “No, honey,” Mom said, “Dad could never forget you.”

As Rendall and his friend Bourke were searching for holiday gifts, they came across a lion cub (幼兽) for sale in a store in London. They bought it and named it Christian. It was a lovely animal, full of character. They looked after Christian for about a year, during which time an amazing bond formed between the two men and the lion. The three of them shared a flat over a furniture shop on London’s King’s Road, where cute and intelligent Christian quickly became a local celebrity, cruising (开车兜风) the streets in the back of a Bentley, popping for lunch at a local restaurant, and even posing for a fashion advertisement.

But soon, Christian outgrew Rendall’s flat and soon even the church garden where he went for exercise wasn’t large enough for him. They realized that their pet needed to be among other lions and deserved to live free in his natural environment. With their friends’ help, Rendall and Bourke took Christian to Kenya and placed it under the expert care of “the father of lions” George Adamson, where the two would introduce Christian to the wild. Rendall and Bourke spent several months with Christian, helping him adapt to the new living environment, and then left unwillingly. A year later, they went back to Kenya, hoping to find the lion. When they finally found Christian, incredibly, Christian walked over slowly. Then suddenly he recognized them! He ran over and jumped up on them. They received a loving welcome from their lion, who was fit in with Africa and a life with other lions in the wild.

Rendall and Bourke’s extraordinary reunion with Christian was filmed and is subject of a wonderful documentary and a book. The film of their reunion was found on a Japanese blog and posted on YouTube accompanied by I will Always love You, sung by Whitney Houston. The clip of the reunion was recently placed on YouTube and has received over 45 million hits.