Roarin' Around

It was back in the 60's that department stores really stocked everything, and one could wander into Harrods and casually purchase a pet lion cub from the 'exotic animals' department, on your way past haberdashery and manchester.  Christian the lion spent his first year of life living it up with his Australian carers in their London flat, cruising around in the backseat of a Bentley, dining at restaurants, and reclining on the chaise longues  at his digs in the furniture shop aptly named 'SophistoCat'.

The vicar of the Moravian Chapel nearby was approached to allow Christian the run of the graveyard, and every day he was taken there to roar around and play football.
Once, when he was brought along to a seaside picnic, he dipped his toes reluctantly in the water and intimated with a shudder that it was disagreeably cold. But he was eventually persuaded to swim in the English Channel.

"Sometimes, he'd see people staring at him through the back window of the car, keep very still on purpose - and then, just when they were convinced he was a stuffed toy, he would very slowly turn his head and freak them out."

excerpts from The Daily Mail