This extraordinarily fortunate man still enjoys morning cuddles with the enormous furry companion he saved when she was a young lioness ten years ago. Since then, they have bonded via spending time together, demonstrating to the world that love is the universal language shared by both people and animals.

The lioness buddy of conservationist Valentin Gruener recently uploaded a video of her response to seeing him in the morning. The touching video quickly became popular online, and it’s not hard to understand why!

Gruener remarked that the lioness considered him her best friend and really enjoyed giving him warm hugs. She does frequently rub her head against his, much like a domestic cat. He has great respect for Sirga even though she has never been confrontational toward him. She surely is aware of how different he is. 

As Gruener later shared, for a fairly huge cat, Sirga is remarkably gentle. For a lion, she has a really kind and gentle personality, as he noted.