WHEN you’re a journalist you’ve got to have skin as thick as, well, a lion’s.

The recent story we covered about sightings of a lion at Shepley station one Sunday led to much fun at my expense.

A friend sent me a text saying: “A woman in my office lives by Shepley station.

“She says she found a tiger, two elephants and a rhino in her garden this morning. Do you want to do a story?’’

Ha ha. I fear my sides may split open.

Well here is undeniable proof that the lion does exist with this photograph taken by a reader. So who’s laughing now then?

When I was training to be a journalist one of the tutors was a former local newspaper editor called Geoff.

He reckoned he’d picked up a brilliant scoop in a pub one day.

He spotted a friend of his who looked tired.

“What’s up,’’ said Geoff. “You look exhausted.’’

“I am,’’ said his friend. “I just can’t get any sleep at all. It’s just all the noise.’’

“Noise? What noise?’’ said Geoff.

“The lion in the garden next door,’’ explained his friend. “It roars all night.’’

And he explained that his neighbour had won a lion in a competition and kept it in a cage in his back garden.

Geoff swore it was true and that his scoop ended up in all the nationals.

But was he just spinning us a yarn because we were gullible, wannabe journalists.

Sometimes it’s impossible to know when facts end and fiction begins, but don’t forget that fact sometimes has the tendency to be stranger than fiction.