The Elephant

( Photo by Brian Fahey - KENYA 2005 )

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I got this in an e-mail today.

I thought it was VERY GOOD! :)

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Subject: The Elephant

This was such a moving and touching story, I had to share it with one
and all.

It's amazing the connections between people and animals. Incredible
story about an elephant's memory.

A young man was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. While
he was walking through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant
standing with one leg raised in the air.

The elephant seemed distressed so the man approached it very carefully.
He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot. There was a
large thorn deeply embedded in the bottom of the foot.

As carefully and as gently as he could he worked the thorn out with his
hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The
elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its
face, stared at him. For a good ten minutes the man stood frozen --
thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant
trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.

The man never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty
years later the man was walking through the zoo with his teenaged son.
As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned
and walked over to where they were standing at the rail. The large bull
elephant stared at him and lifted it's front foot off the ground, then
put it down. The elephant did that several times, all the while staring
at the man. The man couldn't help wondering if this was the same
elephant.

After a while it trumpeted loudly; then it continued to stare at him.
The man summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his
way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared
back in wonder.

Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of
the man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing,
killing him.

...Probably wasn't the same elephant. :(



Junie