In 1986, Joe Dokes was on vacation in
Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. 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 Joe approached it very carefully. He got down on one
knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large
piece of wood deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as
he could, Joe worked the wood 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 curious look on its
face, stared at him for several tense moments. Joe stood frozen,
thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the
elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Joe never
forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Joe was
walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they
approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned
and walked over to near where Joe and his son, John were
standing. The large bull elephant stared at Joe, 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, Joe couldn't help
wondering if this was the same elephant.
Joe 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. The
elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Joe' s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him
instantly.
Probably wasn't the same elephant....
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