Coldest Days in 15 Years

January 5th, 6th, and 7th

Lately, the biggest news has been the arctic cold front blowing through our backyard. It’s absolutely freezing here, the coldest it’s been in the past 15 years, according to our trusty 10 AM newslady. The hardest part about it isn’t the brain freeze you get from standing outdoors for more than 5 minutes, or losing feeling in various fingers, toes, and appendages, but the fact that the poor elephants can’t go outside. When I came here I thought, how in the world do these animals live here? The fact is, Arkansas doesn’t get this cold. It just doesn’t. Until now. There’s not even any snow, just freezing, biting winds. And so the poor elephants stay indoors, bored stiff. Their boredom is starting to show, especially in Bets. Today she ran around in her stall, running into poor mom and flapping her ears, trumpeting as she ran in spastic circles. Turk got out her tire and took it into the stall, attached it to the floor hook with a chain so she couldn’t chuck it, and stepped back. Who knew a tire could be such fun, especially with only a 10-foot radius to work with. She’d pick it up and throw it, but the best part was when she’d throw it, pretend to forget about it, and back up into. It was a game she’d seemed to make up: “Ho hum, just walking along…I think I’ll back up here….OH MY GOSH WHAT DID I JUST STEP ON?!?!” She’d turn around in excitement, pretending to be surprised by its presence and proceed to curl her trunk around it and hurl it across the stall some more. Bets does a dance when she’s happy, where she almost skips around the stall, a sort of awkward gallop, with ears flayed out and head swinging back and forth. If it wasn’t for the huge smile on her face, you might think she was charging you, but the sense of utter joy is enough to know it’s a charge of ecstasy and not one of violence. Today was the first time I saw her do it, and I was rather pleased to bear witness. She’s also taken to approaching the gate and smushing her nose hard against the bars. It’s an odd and adorable spectacle, her little smushed face staring at yours. It took me a few days to finally realize her motives. Today she finally accomplished her purpose: make the gate move. When it finally budged she immediately jumped backwards, half out of surprise of her own small strength and half out of fear of Turk’s reprimand from across the room. She’s quite the troublemaker sometimes, always so curious, those crazy eyes always full of wonder.
As for the boys, they found their own fun. Max decided to start bugging Toby again, leaning as far as his chains allowed towards Toby’s stall and reaching his trunk towards him. Toby’s pretty oblivious to everything, so he just stood there as Max fondled his trunk and tried to pull him closer. The other day they apparently locked trunks and engaged in a makeshift tug-o-war. Max is young and one of the most dangerous of them all, as he doesn’t listen to commands well and tends to act out. But, there’s nothing wrong with a little trunk-holding from time to time. Toby eventually complied and went towards his bars to meet Max, and they both proceeded to interlock trunks for a short embrace. The gentlest side of Max I’ve ever seen. Of course, he then picked up some of his hay (Toby was out) and taunted Toby with it, sticking his hay-laden trunk through the bars to Toby’s cage and then retracting it. As karma kicked in, Toby finally snatched the hay from Max and proceeded to munch on it himself. Max’s loss, Toby’s gain. Max had been defeated in his attempt to taunt his simple friend.
The days have been long and cold lately, so it’s been rather monotonous and lethargic here. I’m sure I’ll have more to tell about escapes (Bets got out the other day) and adventures as soon as this weather clears up. Let’s hope it does. Love to all.
Amelia

Aunt Kim—you’ll be happy to know my nickname here is Blondie. : )