Deplorable

If you've read this journal for any length of time, you know how this makes me feel.....

This is sickening -- Trump’s just given the greenlight for bloodthirsty American hunters to murder elephants  in Africa and bring their heads home as trophies.

Trump’s own son shot and mutilated an elephant -- and now he’s changed the law so anyone can join the slaughter and bring home elephant body parts as souvenirs, even as ivory poaching threatens to wipe them out.

Let’s build a massive global outcry to shame the US into dropping this disgusting plan, and when its huge, Avaaz will work with key African countries to deliver it at a major wildlife protection meeting days away.
 

Sign the petition to President Trump, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and conservation authorities around the world:

"Elephants are facing extinction and this is no time to strip them of protection. Trophy hunting drives the slaughter of elephants, increases demand for their body parts, and projects a double standard that makes it harder to tackle ivory poaching. We call on you to do all you can to reverse the US decision to allow the import of elephant trophies, before it is too late."
 
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/trump_vs_elephants_pa3/?fEZzmjb

Many efforts have been made to outlaw hunting elephants for their tusks, but poaching still occurs on a regular basis. It is thought that from 1930-1940 there were 3 to 5 million African elephants roaming the continent. Now in Western Africa elephant populations are counted in the tens or hundreds.  Conservation Int'l estimates that an elephant is killed every 15 minutes....and this is with the international ban in place.

It was a gigantic win when China was convinced to ban ivory.  What will happen now?  Will China decide to follow suit and allow ivory importing again?

Having read many accounts of people who have spent years with elephants and recorded their families in action, this lifting of the ban hurts me personally.  I hate what happens to elephants.  I cheered when the circuses decided to retire their elephants.

We went to the Chicago zoo once and there was one lone elephant (the other two had died) standing in this small cement yard just staring out.  I apologized to her.  She died a couple of years later.
There are two elephants at the Santa Barbara zoo.  A favorite of the kids who visit, but I hate to see them.  Elephants belong in families.  And free.

I've been following stories on the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the world's most successful elephant rescue and rehabilitation program.  It's wonderful to follow a baby orphaned when his mother is killed for her tusks, to watch that baby bond with the helpers at the orphanage, to watch them create families with the ther orphans, the grow to teenagers and start learning how to live on their own, to watch them finally graduate and become free...and then return in a year or so with a baby in tow to show him/her off.  Wonderfully rewarding.

But what is tragic are the babies who are too traumatized and never get over seeing the slaughter of their mother...and literally die of a broken heart.

Also watching video of the whole group working together to help a baby in trouble is so terribly moving.  And the death rituals of groups of elephants is downright human.  In fact, when you read the observations of these researchers who study elephant behavior you can't help but come to the conclusion that elephants may be the most "human" of any animals.

And now thanks to our glorious leader, people are going to be able to fly to Africa and kill them again to bring their "elephant trophies" home. 

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, told CNN it means "elephants minding their business are going to be gunned down by rich Americans."

I have been so upset by this lifting of the ban, I have been very teary all day.  Not boo hoo crying, but every little thing on TV moves me to tears.

If we didn't have a sociopath in the White House who seems incapable of feeling empathy for anything, we might have a chance of getting the ban put back in place again, but I have little hope.
My grandchildren know elephants.  My great grandchildren may never know an elephant.

Cogito ergo Sum

News from New Zealand: 

New Zealand has just set a great example to the world by recognizing what animal lovers have known forever- that our furry friends are as sentient as we are, and (obviously, dur) they have feelings just like we do. It’s a theme we have covered time and again here at True Activist, but this landmark ruling by NZ is the first time this shift in perception and policy has been extended to all animals, not just chimpanzees, orangutans, or dolphins.

The Animal Welfare Amendment Bill, passed last month, aims to make it easier to prosecute people in animal cruelty cases, as well as banning animal testing and research.

Animal rights activists have celebrated the decision. “To say that animals are sentient is to state explicitly that they can experience both positive and negative emotions, including pain and distress,” said Dr Virginia Williams, chair of the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee. “The explicitness is what is new and marks another step along the animal welfare journey.”

The sentient-ness of animals has been an interest of mine ever since I read that Alec Ramsey and The Black could communicate on a non-verbal level in "The Black Stallion" back in grammar school.

In Catholic school we were always taught that only humans could really think and feel.  We were the higher species because we could use tools.  But ever since Jane Goodall moved in with the chimps, we have learned that not only chimps but lots of other animals use tools.  No one watching movies of Goodall with her chimps or Dian Fosse with the mountain gorillas could deny that these were sentient beings.

I started following the tales of Koko the gorilla, originally the project of then-Stanford PhD candidate Penny Patterson in 1972.  It was to be the first ever project to study linguistic capabilities of gorillas.  Koko's story is incredible, her ability to learn sign language and to begin to communicate with humans, not only displaying, but expressing her feelings.  There is nothing sweeter than her desire for and her delight in getting a kitten she named "All Ball."  

The history of Koko is nothing short of amazing and she has made friends with countless celebrities in her life, including Robin Williams, who made her smile for the first time since the death of her partner, Michael, 6 months prior to her meeting Williams.  When the news of Williams arrived and Koko understood that he was gone, Koko cried.

It's no secret here of my love for and fascination with elephants and learning all about them.  I am presently reading "Elephant Memories, Thirteen years in the life of an Elephant Family" by Cynthia J. Moss.  It's not the first book about elephants I have read, nor will it be the last.  Moss's observations of elephants in Amboseli Natural Park leave no doubt about the intelligence of these animals, their ability to form close family connections, their feelings of joy and sadness.

And the latest book I read is called "Alex the Parrot" and details the 30+ relationship between an African grey parrot and the scientist, Dr. Irene Pepperberg, who chose to work with him  At the time of his death, Alex not only had a speaking knowledge of more than 100 words, but was able to express himself, to make up his own words for things (would not say "apple," for example because it tasted to him like a combination of a banana and a cherry, so he called it a "banerry").  He was labeled "the smartest bird in the world" and at the time of his death, there were obituaries world-wide, including a full page in the New York Times.

Reading the extraordinary reports such as those I mention here, but just looking at my dogs, who know when I am going to leave the house while I am still sitting at my computer typing shows that, really, there is no such thing as a "dumb animal."

And then I watch Republican television debates and wonder.....

Ponderous Pachyderms

This is turning into an "elephant week." 

For one thing, Walt got me this great book off of my Amazon wish list and I have been glued to it.  For another, I watched a marvelous special called Elephant Queen and liked it so much I didn't delete it and want to watch it again.

I've written about elephants on this journal before, but perhaps not quite like this.

I don't know when I began my fascination with elephants, but I guess it's only been in the last 10-15 years that I've really started reading about them and watching TV specials about them.

What fascinates me is that we are so much alike.  I'd say that they are so much like humans, but maybe it's that we are so much like elephants.  Whatever, we share so many things in common.

The book follows one family of elephants for 13 years and the writer paints stories that read like novels, explaining things like the social structure, birth, death, mating, migration, etc.  

The video tells a migration story from the view of the elephant matriarch as she guides her family out of the drought zone to the lush ancient elephant grazing ground, more than 100 miles away.  The photography of this video is amazing.  You would have thought a camera crew went along with the group, but of course it's a patchwork of what must be hours and hours of film.  The most amazing shots, to me, were of lions, from the back, stalking elephants in the tall grass and how the elephants work together to find the one baby who is lost.

When the baby is found several days later, with serious injuries, but alive and able to run to his mother, the final scene of her touching him and rubbing against is body over and over again leaves little doubt about the bond between mother and child, her anxiety at his loss and her relief when he is found again.

Watching any elephant video shows how families work to support each other.  When a baby is in danger of drowning, for example, the whole herd comes to his assistance and works to help the little one out onto dry land.

When an elephant dies, the whole herd goes into mourning, touching the body, making rumbling sounds and only after a long while do they finally leave.

One particular poignant moment in the video showed the death of a baby and the herd gathering around it saying good bye, then turning and slowly walking away.  The mother is the last to leave.  She makes one more approach to the body, touching it all over with her trunk.  Then she walks away, turns, lifts her trunks and gives out a mournful trumpeting sound before turning back to rejoin the herd.  It breaks your heart.

The book tells of an elephant who starts to collapse on the march to find water and food and two other elephants get on either side of her, holding her up so she can walk.  She finally can't walk any farther and collapses and both of the helper elephants try to get her up, but she dies.  One of the other elephants keeps trying to get her up and manages, with her tusks, to get the body to a standing position, but she is, of course, a dead weight and not only falls again, but breaks the helper's tusk off in the process.

The chapter on mating was actually kind of risque as one particularly appealing young female was apparently gang banged by a bunch of horny males.

Time and time again are examples of elephant intelligence, complex emotions, and skills that far outweigh ours (the migration, for example, follows a path that elephants have been following for hundred of years and the matriarch remembers).

I don't know that I will ever tire of learning new things about elephants, and the closeness of elephant families.  Watch the heartwarming story of 2 elephants, who had not seen each other in 20 years, reunited again at an elephant sanctuary.

And there are no words for poachers.

This is from the worst recorded episode of ivory poaching in Kenya.

I am so glad that humans (some of them) are starting to realize the damage it does to an elephant to be separated from her family and placed in a circus or in a zoo.  Ringling Bros recently ended its elephant performances and I know how that disappoints people, but the more you know about the suffering these wonderful animals go through the more you realize that they belong in the wild with their family, not performing for human beings.

PC Pasta and other Causes

Some people don't know when to shut up.

Yesterday, Guido Barilla, company president of Barilla pasta issued a statement on an Italian radio station:

"I would never do [a commercial] with a homosexual couple, not for lack of respect but because we don't agree with them," said Guido Barilla, according to a Reuters translation. "Ours is a classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role. … If [gays] don't like it, they can go eat another brand."

As if that weren't a strong enough statement, he then added:

"I have no respect for adoption by gay families because this concerns a person who is not able to choose," according to a translation from the U.K. Independent "Everyone has a the right to do what they want without disturbing those around them."

In other words, "I respect gays; I just don't want them to have the same rights as I do." 

Well....needless to say these comments sparked an instant response world-wide and a call for a boycott of Barilla products.  The hashtag #boycottbarilla was "trending" on Twitter by the afternoon.  Even members of the Italian Parliament got into the fight. "Here we have another example of homophobia, Italian style," said Alessandro Zan, a member of the left-wing Sinistra Ecologia Libertá party. "I'm boycotting Barilla and I invite other MPs … to do the same. I've already changed pasta brands. Barilla is terrible quality."

My friend James C. Glica-Hernandez posted something on Facebook, which was the first I'd heard of the tempest in a pasta pot.  It sparked a long list of comments about boycotting Barilla and tossing out any Barilla products people currently had on their shelves.

I supported the boycott and even wrote a note to Barilla saying I would stop buying their products.  I stopped short of tossing out my already-purchased Barillal pasta, since the company already had my money and nobody would know whether I used it or threw it away--and I hated to throw away good food (I was happy, however, to discover that I didn't have as much Barilla product as I thought--just one package of angel hair pasta).

This morning, apparently having been made aware of the negative publicity his company was getting, Guido Barilla issued another statement:

"I apologize if my words generated misunderstandings or if they offended the sensibilities of some people," saying that he "respected everyone" but "Barilla is for traditional families, can even accept gay marriage but are against any adoptions by gays".

So to make things better he adds that gays should not adopt...but, presumably, it's OK if they eat his pasta.

Needless to say, I will not be buying Barilla products ever again.   He is entitled to his own views, and he is entitled to say so on the radio -- and I have the right not to buy a product that is made by someone who is so vocal in his hatred of gay people. 

But while writing this I came across another unrelated thing that makes my blood boil.  NBC is going to air an episode of the NRA-sponsored show Under Wild Skies, in which brave hunter Tony Makris (also an NRA lobbyist) hires a guide in Botswana to kill an elephant - for its ivory.

Makris proceeds to shoot the animal in the face numerous times, then chuckle while it issues its dying groans. He expresses pride in bringing the coveted ivory back to camp.

Let me repeat that:

...shoot the animal in the face numerous times, then chuckle while it issues its dying groans

I cannot tell you how that makes my stomach turn. Did this elephant have a baby nearby who is going to be traumatized for life hearing its mothers dying groans? 

If you, like me, care about these animals and are sickened by the exploitation of the animals for sport...and for the entertainment of the home viewer, I hope you will sign the petition to ask NBC Sports not to air the program.

You can find the petition here.

Feet

Sounds kind of crazy, but I'm thinking about feet today.  I thought about feet last night when I was sleeping on the couch with Lizzie, I thought about feet when I was reading my new elephant book when I couldn't get to sleep, and I thought about my own feet when I headed off to Podiatry this morning.

This was the last of the tests my primary care physician ordered in August, all of which have been within normal limits.  The podiatry appointment was canceled by Kaiser twice, so I expected them to be canceling again when they called yesterday, but it was just a reminder.  I got up early this morning to do a foot soak, just in case the feet weren't as clean as they looked!

I don't know why there was no podiatry clinic closer than Vallejo, which is an hour's drive from here. I gave "Nigel" (our GPS--he's British) the information and off I went.  The Kaiser garage was so full I thought surely I would be late for my appointment, but no, I arrived only one minute after the scheduled time.

The provider was an RN named Terry, who didn't know, either, why I was there, but she checked my feet, clipped my toenails and told me I was welcome to come back for nail care if I wanted, but it would cost $35 per visit, so I thanked her and made my way back out to the car again!

The one thing she did do was to explain that the "ingrown toenail" I thought I had was not, and was a mild nail fungus, about which I can do nothing really, except get a soft brush and brush the area when I take a shower.  She cleaned out the area, and it doesn't hurt any more.  Yippee!

As for dog feet, Lizzie comes to mind instantly.  Lizzie spends a lot of time licking her front paws.  Wherever she is she is licking those feet.  It always looks like one of the dogs has peed on the couch or on a blanket because she slops over onto whatever surface she is lying and leaves a small puddle of dog drool.  There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her feet, she just likes to lick them.

But what I'm finding today the most interesting feet are elephant feet. The book I am reading currently is called "The Elephant's Secret Sense," by Caitlin O'Connell.  O'Connell has spent many years studying elephants, particularly focusing on their method of communication.  She speaks about how important an elephant's feet are in communicating not only with its own herd, but herds in the vast area where it lives.

The pad on the bottom of an elephant's foot is able to register vibrations for many miles, which can tell it where other herds are located and when there is danger nearby.  It also allows these huge animals to move almost soundlessly through the forest, when necessary.

But over and above the spongy pad of the foot, she observed that when startled, or wary, elephants walk on tiptoe.  (They also stand on tiptoe to reach vegetation which is too high to reach from the ground.)  She speculates that "perhaps elephants were getting up onto the their toes to direct the vibrations through special vibration-sensitive cells at the tips of the toes or through their toenails.  Alternatively, the vibrations could pass through their foot pads and and toe bones, feet, and then up the leg, and into the ear."

As I have mentioned here many times, I find elephants endlessly fascinating and look forward to finishing this book and knowing even more.

 

But the best thing about "feet" tonight is looking through them,
watching the TV, which is fixed and BACK!

Here Come the Elephants

About a year ago, I wrote about my love of elephants.  The entry was prompted by seeing Like Water for Elephants and falling in love with its star, Rosie.  I am "into" elephants again, with the book I just finished, and am inspired once again to talk about the ponderous pachyderms.

I may have seen elephants in zoos as a small child, but the first interaction up close and personal with an elephant that I remember was at the circus.   Circuses were held at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and before or after the show, you could walk "backstage" to see the animals.  I remember that I had a bag of peanuts and was able to feed the elephant peanuts...and when the peanuts were gone, I fed the elephant the bag (which she also ate with delight).  

My second close interaction with elephants is the subject of the Video of the Day (which is a video taken of a screen showing a home movie--the sound is of all of us watching the movie).  It was August of 1968, when Ned was about a year old, and the circus was coming to Oakland.  Char and I decided to take the kids down to the train and watch the animals being unloaded, which was great fun.  Then we put the kids in the cars and drove to the Oakland Colisseum to watch the animal parade arrive there.  Char and I found a good spot to stand with all the kids and watch the parading animals arrive.  Too late we realized that all that was separating us from the Big Cats (in cages) was a thin tent wall.  We would have moved, but it was too late.  The elephants were coming straight for us.  They passed within a couple of feet of us and as one passed by, her handler warned us "watch out--she kicks."  

It was an early adventure in a lifetime of adventures with Charlotte!   And it was Ned's first time on TV, as the local news filmed him riding in the backpack while the animals were coming off the train.

I've always been fascinated by elephants, moreso the more I learn about them.  From National Geographic specials, I learned about elephant societies and from those movies and tons of movies on You Tube, I've seen how the elephant families work together, play together, solve problems together, and grieve together.

(Parenthetically, I think back to my days in school, where I was taught that what separated humans from animals was our ability to think rationally and to use tools.  Later observation of so many species of animals shows how wrong, and downright egotistical, that is!  In many cases, the animals are smarter than we are!)

It would be decades before I understood the plight of elephants in circuses and zoos, to learn about the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and begin to follow their stories, send a donation when I could, and to root for animals that the group was working so hard to rescue from unspeakable conditions so they could live out their lives in peace and comfort.

It was through one of the nature specials that I learned about the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, which rescues orphaned elephants and raises them to be introduced back into the wild.  I have just started reading the autobiography of Daphne Sheldrick, who founded the foundation many years ago and who still, at age 78, runs the place. Peggy visited there several years ago (outsiders are permitted to see the babies for one hour a day...check this cute video I found) and Walt's sister and her husband were there last year, when helping to inaugurate a new well for a village in Kenya.  I know I will never get there now, but it had long been my dream to go.

While reading Sheldrick's book, I came across another one which sounded interesting, "The Elephant Whisperer," by Lawrence Anthony.   Anthony owns a game preserve in central Zululand, in South Africa.  He was just developing it when someone made him an offer he couldn't refuse:  9 rogue elephants that he could either have for free or that would be killed because nobody else wanted them.  Against his better judgement, he agreed to take them, and thus starts the story of his struggles with them, his becoming accepted by the herd as an OK guy to have around, if at a safe distance, the trumphs and tragedies that take place over many years, and mostly just learning more about these magnificent animals and other animals in the reserve as well).

This book read more gripping than a novel.  When I woke up at 4 a.m., unable to sleep, I thought I would read for a bit and next thing I knew I was finishing the book at 8 a.m. (so asI write this I am a bit groggy!)

Anthony's passion for saving the elephants--and all the animals on his reserve--speaks loudly through every chapter.  He explores their ability to communicate through rumblings in their stomachs at frequencies below human hearing, which can be detected by herds many miles apart.  He is so keen on keeping them wild animals, that all employees of the reserve were forbidden to make any direct contact with the herd and that he was the only one who was permitted to interact with them, his idea to bond with the matriarch, Nana, as a way of settling the herd in...and once that was done he, too, would leave them alone and reduce all communication.

Throughout the book there are instances that are amazing examples of elephant intelligence and understanding.  Nana saved Anthony's life at least twice.   When an elephant baby was born crippled and after many days watching the herd trying to get her to her feet, Anthony was able to communicate his desire to help and, with a bit of trickery, was able to take the baby to his home and get her medical attention.

I am fascinated by animal communication and the more I read books like this, the more I realize how very little we know about the world around us. 

Read this passage about plant life, for example...

Here in this ancient woodland, the acacia tree not only understands it's under attack when browsed by an antelope or giraffe, it quickly injects tannin into its leaves, making them taste bitter.

Dumb plants indeed!

Every time I read a book like this, I look at the dogs and wonder what they think, what they understand, and why if a herd of elephants can learn how to interact with humans, a little Chihuahua can't to relieve herself outside...where nature intends for her to go!!!

Loving Elephants

It's a good thing that we don't have an organization which rescues abused elephants in Davis, or we'd have a small herd in our back yard. (Boy THAT would be something for Mr. McCoy, wouldn't it be!)

I don't know why I have always loved elephants so much. When I used to take the kids to the zoo, I would stand at the gorilla cages and try to apologize to the animals for staring. But it wasn't until we visited Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo that I did that to an elephant. I took pictures of this elephant which stood fairly near to me, across a deep moat and I looked deep into her eyes and, having by that time been made somewhat aware (though not as much as I am now) of the condition of elephants in zoos and circuses, I just stood there and tried to communicate to her how sad I was that she was locked up in her concrete prison.

(By 2005 the elephant enclosure at the Lincoln Park Zoo was empty, following the death of all three elephants over the previous two years.)

A few years back, I became aware of the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. I don't check the web site as much now as I once did, but I loved reading of the battle the people who run this sanctuary did to rescue elephants from untenable living conditions and move them into "retirement" in Tennessee, a place which is not open to the public, so they can live a life as close as possible to what they would find in the wild (probably better, since they don't have to travel miles searching for water!)

It was probably Peggy who introduced me to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which rescues orphaned elephants. The stories are triumphant and heartbreaking. Peggy has been there. Walt's sister will be there in two weeks. I've followed the stories of babies who watched their mothers killed by poachers and who are able to find a home at the Trust and go on to be old enough to be released back into the wild.

And I've cried at the stories of babies who were so traumatized by the circumstances of their mothers' deaths that they could not recover and literally died of grief.

I always watch specials on elephants when they show up on Animal Planet or PBS. I am amazed by elephant society and how they care for each other, help each other, grieve at friends' deaths.

Today I fell in love with an elephant. Well, not the real elephant, the elephant character. I fell in love with Rosie, the elephant in Water for Elephants. I knew I wanted to see the movie when I heard it was going to be made. I was hoping it would not, like so many books-to-movies, ruin a book that I loved.

It did not. In fact, it may have improved upon it. The book was told in two voices, that of an old man in a rest home and the voice of the young man he once was. The scenes go back and forth from the minor circus for which he once worked and how he feels about being warehoused in a home, when his son forgets to come and go with him to the circus that is coming to town. I loved it. It was the first audio book I listened to and I listened to it for the 11 hr train ride from Santa Barbara to Davis, after I had spent the weekend, in part, visiting with Walt's mother, so was acutely aware of old folks homes.

In the movie the old man wanders into the grounds of the circus, when they are tearing the tents down and is taken to the office of the manager, who is going to call "the home" and get someone to pick him up. He starts talking about his days with the circus and so it becomes a linear story that goes from point A to point Z in a wonderful fashion.

Reese Witherspoon is sparkly as the star of the show, Christopher Waltz is absolutely riveting as the ringmaster/owner of the circus, and Robert Pattinson will make you forget he was once a vampire in the Twilight series.

But it is Rosie, the elephant who is the real star. There is a soul there and she dominates whatever scene she is in, not only by her size, but by her ... humanity.

I'm officially a Rosie fan. And if you haven't seen the movie, by all means go and see it. There's enough sex and violence that it's probably not good for little kids, but the story is just wonderful and the movie definitely does it justice.

Happy Birthday, Peggy

Today is Peggy's birthday (though since there's that whole time zone thing, she's probably reading it after her birthday).

I wanted to tell you what I got her for a gift, 'cause I hope that some of you might get intrigued as well.

You know, last year she had her trip of a lifetime and went on a long-dreamed of photo safari to Africa. Some day I will finally get to see her photos, but I have seen a few of them and they are spectacular.

I had seen a BBC special on TV before she went to Africa, and copied it onto a DVD for her. (I can't remember now if that was the reason she visited this place or if she discovered it on her own).

It is the David Sheldrake Wildlife Trust and it's an amazing place where they rescue orphaned elephants and rhinos. It was founded by Daphne Sheldrake, in memory of her husband David, who had been head warden of Kenya's Tsavo National Park until his death in 1977.

(Now whoda thunk that a person who works with orphaned puppies and a person who works with orphaned kangaroos would be interested in a place like this!)

The Sheldrake Wildlife Trust is in Nairobi National Park. (There are several videos taken by people if you do a search on "David Sheldrake" on YouTube. There are also video clips on the Sheldrake web site.)

It was a few years back when I saw the BBC video, but I remember the tales of the traumatized babies, some only weeks old, watching their mothers be slaughtered by poachers. One of the articles linked on the Sheldrake web sites says, "When I met [Daphne] Sheldrake in 1989, she was soothing a baby elephant so traumatized after ivory poachers killed its family that it screamed in its sleep, apparently suffering nightmares."

You know what that did to my heart.

Each baby has an individual caretaker, so they are with a single human being 24 hrs a day, but they have discovered that separation anxiety is very real for these babies, so they rotate the caretakers so that the babies don't get too attached to one person, who might have to leave for one reason or another.

Anyway, Peggy went to visit the shelter while she was in Africa and when she returned to Australia, she went onto the web site and got information about their adoption program and adopted little Dida, born September 2007, who is the youngest of the group available for adoption.

I decided to adopt a companion for Dida as a gift for Peggy's birthday. I wanted a very young elephant (that's how I found that Dida is the youngest). I read through the profiles of every single elephant on the site and settled on Lesanju, a year older than Dida, who seems to have taken Dida under her wing.

Lesanju

I know that "fostering" programs are just hooks to get you to contribute money, but it's a terrific cause so I don't mind. I got turned on to elephants and their plight worldwide when I was following The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, which rescues elephants from zoos and circuses and moves them to the compound where there are no visitors allowed and they are free to do what they can and live out the remainder of their lives in as normal an environment as they can (given that it's not Africa).

I am more than thrilled to help support an organization which does what it can to ease the trauma for these poor babies and raise them to eventually be released back into the wild.

So, happy birthday, my friend. Now you have two elephants. YOU can clean up the yard.

Dida and Lesanju