Yet the widespread impression in the Middle East is that the lion has turned into a pussycat.
One of the first and most striking examples is a three-foot high, bronze lion with pussycat ears (pictured above).
After all, who would use a pussycat as a guard-dog?
She believes that these younger pussycat mums might instead appreciate their children learning the creativity, teamwork and problem-solving that, she argues, come from playing with Lego.The Danish firm that makes the coloured bricks certainly agrees with her.
And that is what is up with the world's biggest pussycat.
But does he or a judge have any right to deny someone who works ten hours a day in a Sunderland call centre and lives for football, the right to buy a paper that reveals the sexual peccadilloes of one of his team's millionaire married players – a player who uses his celebrity to sell products to him and his childrenSo no, Mr Dacre has not turned into a pussycat.
The fox in socks is as entrancing and memorable as Carroll's walrus and carpenter, or Lear's owl and pussycat.
What could be better than sitting slurping from a giant cup and throwing back popcorn as you enjoy the latest movie with a fluffy pussycat sitting on your lap?
Mendoza was more enthusiastic about the pundit, describing him as a "pussycat" to paint.
The draw at the US Open is not ordinarily subject to the vagaries of climate in this way, unlike, for example, at The Open, where the vicissitudes of the British summer can transform a links course from pussycat to penal colony either side of lunch.
The boy and the tiger might just as well be the owl and the pussycat in their beautiful pea-green boat.
