A little elephant called Moyo and his savior Roxy have a true friendship
Can an unlikely friendship arise between a little elephant and a woman? Yes of course, and Roxy Danckwerts knows this very well. The woman has always been active in the protection of animals in danger and founded the Wild Is Life Association. That organization has built a safe haven for wild animals in Zimbabwe. She had made the acquaintance of a baby elephant who was alone on the banks of the Kariba River.
Alone and scared and without his herd to protect him, the baby elephant didn’t know where to go. Later on, he met Roxy so she decided to host him in her animal sanctuary for a few days. In fact, when Roxy rescued the baby elephant left at the river, he was underweight. He weighed 125 pounds as opposed to an average of about 200-220 pounds for a standard calf of his species. For this, the first few weeks in the shelter were very difficult.
But all’s well when it ends well. Now 5 years have passed since the rescue and the elephant Moyo, which in one African means “born from the heart”, is so fond of Roxy, his human savior, that he never leaves her side!
Now Moyo seems much more interested in Roxy’s home life than in the open spaces of the wild country of Zimbabwe. He always wants to stay indoors with his human savior. The elephant, in fact, regularly visits Roxy’s kitchen, chewing peanuts, and eating cookies, and also seems that the silverware is so interesting to him.
Over time, Moyo also managed to overcome his fear of water. Five years earlier he had been particularly traumatized by the river where he had been unintentionally abandoned by his pachyderm family. But after 15 months of therapy, Roxy succeeded. Moyo is now no longer afraid of crossing a stream, river, lake, or waterfall!
