A tale of two lions

Once upon a time not too long ago, there was a zoo in Gaza City. That's in the Palestine for all you geography-challenged readers.

Anyway, the zoo brought over a pair of three-month-old lion cubs from Egypt and named them Sakhar (strong) and Sabrina (patient).

As lion cubs often do, Sakhar and Sabrina loved to play with each other. They spent all their days at the zoo playing. I suppose they spent all their nights playing too.

One day in November 2005, four bad men with big, big guns raided the zoo and abducted Sabrina and two Arabic-speaking parrots.

What kind of masked gunmen would do this? The kind who will one day unleash a full-grown lion into a crowded street, with trained parrots delivering their message loudly. A lion that could kill or maim dozens of people in a very short time would be hard for authorities to stop and would definitely make news everywhere. Plus, you cannot arrest a bird for talking, no matter what it's saying.

Or maybe there's a simpler reason - the birds were witnesses to the abduction and the gunmen didn't want anyone or any bird to spill the beans.

Anyway, Sakhar was outraged and tried to save his sister. But being a small cub he was no match for the baddies with guns. However, he managed to scare them off, but not before they took Sabrina and the parrots away.

Now Sakhar was unhappy. He brooded a lot, roared inconsolably, pined for his little sister and refused to eat his meat. This went on for a while but time healed his pain. A great healer, time is.

Years passed... Suddenly, control of the Gaza strip passed from the hands of the Fatah movement to Hamas. In one of the gun battles around Gaza, the Hamas militia raided the hideout of a notorious drug ring and suddenly came across Sabrina.

Poor Sabrina. Poor malnourished, very tired and mistreated Sabrina. She was missing four teeth, claws and the end of her tail had been cut off to remove the black hair that symbolised the African lions. "She must have felt very humiliated," remarked the zoo's veterinarian.

But lucky Sabrina. I'm sure she now feels just as happy as BBC reporter Alan Johnston who was freed after 114 days in captivity in the Gaza strip.

So now, Sabrina's home in the zoo. And you know what? Sakhar immediately recognised his sister. The two playfully swatted each other in the face and chased each other. When a zoo guard tried to pet Sabrina, Sakher crouched as if ready to pounce.

Happy ending? You bet!