As a photographer and animal lover I was looking forward to photographing the elephants at the rescue center in San Andreas. This special place takes in retired circus and zoo elephants and gives them a luxury retirement complete with elephant size barns, wide open pastures and the love and care of dedicated keepers.

The event I was attending was a wine tasting and auction to help raise money for the facility. It takes a lot to feed and house just one elephant and the facility had at least 10 at the time.

While walking around taking pictures and listening to conversations I kept hearing people discussing one of the elephants named Winky. Winky? Could it be the Winky I worked with at the Sacramento Zoo more than 20 years ago, the one who chased me across the elephant yard? Eventually I asked one of the staff and he said yes, that after the death of Winky’s partner, Susie, she had been shipped to the Detroit Zoo and had just recently come home to retire.

I was excited to see her again and curious  to see if she would remember me. They say an elephant never forgets, but Winky showed no sign of recognition. I certainly did not blame her. I imagine I was pretty insignificant in her long life and Winky was the oldest elephant in the U.S.

***********

Working with the elephants was intimidating. Although they are usually very placid animals, they could get up to mischief on occasion and a simple prank to them could be quite serious for us. When volunteers worked in their enclosure, the elephants were given acacia branches to eat and a chained was placed around their ankle, to keep them away from the volunteers while they worked. We were told that if they were not chained they often liked to steal rakes, shovels or hoses from the hands of the person cleaning their pen.

Cleaning their pen was back-breaking labor for me. At only 110 lbs, the wheel barrow full of elephant dung probably weighed more than I did. Once the barrow was full, I had to take it to the dumpster which was at the bottom of a long, steep hill. It never failed that no matter how hard I tried to control the wheel-barrow, it always picked up speed down the hill and ended up on its side at the bottom, necessitating a re-cleanup of all that dung I had already shoveled once.

The day of the “chase” the elephants, Winky and Susie, were taken to the corner of the paddock to eat their acacia bushes. I was left alone with the dreaded wheel-barrow and a large fire-hose for cleaning the cement area at the front of their pen. Once I had the wheel-barrow full, I started to spray down the cement. When I reached the far side of the pen I happened to glance over at the elephants and suddenly realized that the keeper had forgotten to chain Winky. About the same  time I noticed, so did Winky.

She took a slow lazy step in my direction still pretending to eat, as if she wasn’t really aware of  our situation. I knew to run would be a mistake, so I pretended to be hosing the cement in the opposite direction.  I was trying to hurry without it being obvious that I was trying to escape. She continued to sidle along in my direction, without making it an all out chase. She was slowly, methodically gaining on me and I was trying not to panic. I wasn’t sure which of us would win.

My heart was pounding by the time I reached the iron bars, slipped under and rapidly pulled out the remaining length of hose. She reached me just as the end of the hose slipped under the bars and stood there swaying and eying me. I wasn’t sure whether she appreciated me as a worthy opponent in our cat-and-mouse game, or perhaps was just thinking, “Wait until next time.”

As of this writing, I looked up Winky’s story on the PAWS website and was heart-broken to learn that she had passed away in April, the oldest elephant in the country. I am glad I got to see her one last time. I will miss her.