rickheel
The Old Bastard
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Joined: Feb 2002
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Touching Story........
Elephant's Memory - Touching Story.
In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college.
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with
one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed so Mbembe
approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the
elephant's foot, and found a large thorn deeply embedded in it. As carefully
and as gently as he could, Mbembe 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
several tense moments Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being
trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.
Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As they
approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over
to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing. The large bull elephant
stared at Mbembe and lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down.
The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while
staring at the man. Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help
wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe 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.
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08-02-2006 10:51 AM |
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