Baby Elephant Makes Me Want This Man's Job

Dan Daeng was trying to paint a fence.
Khunsuk the baby elephant would have
none of it. It was time to play!

At the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand, keeper Dan Daeng, 20, was trying to be productive. He was hard at work trying to get a fence painted.

Khunsuk would have none of it. Khunsuk is a one year old baby elephant who thinks all work and no play makes Dan a dull boy.   

So, Khunsuk tried to put a stop to Dan's work. He tried slapping Dan with his trunk to get him to play. He tried tapping on his leg. Dan ignored Khunsuk. There was work to do! But Khunsuk said, no, and ruffled Dan's hair.

It was all over. Fence painting was done. Time to play. The resulting video, below, makes me really wish I had Dan Daeng's job.

Or, at least I could hav Khunsuk the baby elephant over to my house for awhile so we could play in the yard.

Watch:

Playtime! Baby Elephant And Two Dogs Have Fun In The Sun

Navaan the young elephant recently met a cat
at the preserve in Thailand where he lives. He
was a bit dubious about the cat, but loves
playing with his dog friends.  

As I like to take the occasional break from carping and complaining about the world, I'll add a couple of moments of brightness to this blog.

At the bottom of this post, if you want a little cheer, watch the video of baby elephant Navaan and his doggy friends Rocky and Jeremy have a little fun in a Thailand animal park.

The animal park is run by Save Elephant Foundation, a non-profit that provides care and help to Thailand's captive elephant populations.

When Navaan isn't playing with the dogs, he's playing with old tires at the elephant preserve where he lives. They're easy for him to pick up and throw around. See? Anything can become a treasured plaything.

 Here's the video of Navaan playing with his doggie friends:

Tidy Elephant Keeps African Safari Lodge Neat And Clean

Tidy elephant in South Africa being tidy.  

Surveillance video at the Thornhill Safari Lodge in South Africa caught an elephant there just trying to keep the place tidy.

The elephant, who was just hanging out, noticed that people had missed the trash can and left papers are other garbage on the grounds.

The elephant took care of that in a hurry.

The elephant turns out to be an unwitting salesperson for the place. Now I want to go and check out all the animals there.

Maybe I should also hire this guy or gal (not sure which) to tidy up around my house, too.

Here's the fun video:

I'm Greatly Relieved That Raju The Elephant Won't Have To Go Back To The Awful Guy Who Tortured Her

Raju the rescued elephant recovering at a wildlife refuge this
summer. An Indian court ruled he won't have to go back
to his abusive former "owner."  

I've never met him, but I've been terribly worried about Raju over the past several months.

Raju is an elephant living in India who was treated with terrible cruelty by his "owner" over the course of nearly five decades.

Back in July, an animal protection group called Wildlife SOS rescued Raju from his owner.

He'd been captured as a baby and spent about five decades in spiked shackles, being forced to work as a begging elephant, says the Huffington Post.

I don't know how a human being could do this for so long to a beautiful and intelligent animal like Raju, but it happened.

When Wildlife SOS rescued him earlier this year, a video of the rescue went viral because Raju could be seen crying with relief as the rescuers brought him what was probably the first act of kindness she'd seen in his entire life.

"'The vet and our team came with fruits and just started speaking softly to him, and to reassure him that we were there to help, and it was at that time that tears flooed down his face,' Nikki Sharp, the executive director of Wildlife SOS-USA told The Huffington Post, adding, 'They've done a lot of elephant rescues and the fact the tears were just coming down...he was weeping. It was an emotional moment and everyone was more motivated to get him on the truck and to safety.'

 The reason why I was worried is because, according to the Huffington Post,  it looked as if Raju's rescue would be short-lived. Her former "owner" sued to get her back, so Raju would live out her days in those shackles, begging and making that creepy guy money.

The previous owner was only named as a "Mr. Shahid," and he said the elephant was his. But the group that rescued Raju says Shadid was unspeakably cruel to the elephant, and besides, he had no papers proving he is the rightful owner.

But last week, an Indian court ruled that Shadid has no right to the elephant, and is charged with illegally obtaining him, says the Telegraph UK. 

So Raju will stay at the refuge where Wildlife SOS brought him.

In August, Wildlife SOS reported that Raju has been doing wonderfully at the refuge. He loves to play in the water, he is spoiled with buckets of foods, and he has even made some female friends.

Below, is a video, partly filmed the night Raju was rescued.

My favorite part of the video is when the gentle but determined man cutting the rusty, sharp chains off of Raju tells him, with conviction, "You'll never have to wear these again."

I'm so glad that promise came true.

Watch: