WHEN IS A LION A SEALION?

Some of my Twitter friends also know my friend/brother/housemate Leroy Sealion and some of them have wondered why somebody who is clearly a lion calls himself a sealion. If you are one of them you are not the first people to ask that very sensible question. Why indeed? Leroy has asked me to do a special blog post to explain this strange phenomenon.

Before you can understand the answer to that question there are a few things you need to know:

1. Leroy has been with my person for a long time (25 years)


2. Leroy is a serious football fan and a keen supporter of England as well as Arsenal


3. Although the English invented football England have only won one major football trophy, the World Cup in 1966 when the world cup was held in England


4. In 1996 England hosted the European Championships and many people were convinced that England would win


5. English football players wear a badge on their shirt with 3 lions on it.

Right now you know all of that you have a chance of understanding this complex explanation of Leroy's strange status as a sealion.

When England hosted the European Championships in 1996 Leroy and our people lived in London quite near to Wembley stadium so the event was very big for them. Leroy and his brothers Henry (Sealion) and Lenny (Sealion), yes Leroy is not the only lion who is known as a sealion, decided to set themselves up as England's support mascots the Three Lions. They wore their England kits and sat in front of the television watching every game and sending positive brainwaves to the team. You can see them here in their England shirts. Leroy is on the left, Henry in the middle and the bigger one on the right is Lenny. Of course as Leroy thought of the idea he is the captain of the squad.

In addition to Leroy starting his mascot squad a song was released to celebrate the tournament, called 'Three Lions on a Shirt', for any of you who haven't heard it a quick listen might help you to understand the rest of this strange explanation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVgBtkN0Jc it is quite an amusing song and you will find yourself singing it straight away. I am sure English readers are very familiar with it!

A young relation of ours who is grown up now and denies that this ever happened, used to think that instead of singing 'three lions on their shirts' they were singing (yes you guessed it) 'sealions on their shirts'. This made some of the friends, who were already living with Leroy by then, tease Leroy and his brothers and call them the sealions. At first Leroy was not very happy about this, but as he says "if you can't beat them join them". He has embraced the name and uses it, not only as the name for his mascot squad, but also as his own name, although he is really Leroy Martin and could have signed onto Twitter as that he chose to sign up as Leroy Sealion so there you are he is happy with the name, his brothers use it too, as Henry says "it makes us unique and everyone wants to find out about us because of our strange name".

So now you know, and in June/July 2010 I will be enjoying the World Cup with the Sealions, this is their 7th major tournament, both World Cups and European Championships, they work very hard on their support for the team and I for one hope they see success in their efforts to help them do well in a tournament one day.