This Lady Appreciates Routines

Lady has foot care sessions twice a day most days. In the mornings, we do her foot soaks and topical treatments, and in the afternoons, we scrub and apply topical treatments. We don’t do trimming daily, but, when we do any filing or trimming or her nails or pads, it happens in the afternoon.

One recent morning, after her foot soaks, Lady backed out of her chute like usual and went into the stalls. We wanted to document her feet through photos, so we asked Lady to present her feet at the front set of bars, where she does her afternoon footwork.

Lady seems to appreciate routines and is not a fan of anything new we introduce to her care regimen. The first few times we applied a liniment to Lady’s front left leg to help with stiffness (it is much better than when she arrived, but she has her days), we got dirty and watchful looks. Now it may be her favorite part of her morning routine. It took her a little bit to accept it fully.

This morning, when we asked for her foot, she paused, shot us a little side-eye, and put up one of her feet. Once she realized that the additional request was nothing out of the ordinary, and meant more treats for her, she was her usual cooperative self.

Sometimes, elephants look at us as if to say, “What are you doing, silly humans?” It’s always charming when they act as if our tiny human brains entertain them. At least this time, we had a legitimate reason, other than needing more coffee. ?

July 14, 2020

Comments(11)

Debbie Sides says
July 14, 2020 at 5:11 pm
Sweet little Ladybug. Just love her!
Wim says
July 14, 2020 at 5:40 pm
A very smart Lady knows how to manipulate and entertain at the same time and place.
She must be a professional multitasking acrobat. Well done My Lady are humans smart enough to understand how intelligent Elephants are? ???
Sherry says
July 14, 2020 at 5:52 pm
I believe she always wants to do the right thing, but hesitates because she doesn’t know what is going to happen.
She can be funny about it too.❤️?
Julie says
July 14, 2020 at 8:13 pm
Silly, lovely Lady. I’m glad to see all is well at GES. I didn’t see a post yesterday and was honestly worried. If anyone deserves a day off from posting it is you kind and dedicated folks!
Sheila says
July 14, 2020 at 8:34 pm
Awesome sweet? lady‼️ thank u scott and cat for working so hard on ladys feet! if you can see how the feet have improved quite abit this is excellent news? well as anyone knows liniment has great healing properties for muscles, maybe even infection over continued time‼️ (farmers put it on cows legs and race horses get it put on their spines and leg muscles too) but initially it takes abit of getting used to smell wise! im certain lady ?was opposed to the unique medicinal strong smell but. Ill bet has helped her ankles and knees‼️I pray it does give her very good results and relief sweet ?lil lady does deserve her treats!!
Rosie P says
July 15, 2020 at 2:13 am
These gorgeous giants are incredible. The more I learn about them the more I am mesmerised by them. Many years ago I was so lucky to have seen elephants in the wild on a safari in Kenya. It is painful for me to see how many captive elephants are so badly treated by Man, how we imprison these majestic creatures for our entertainment. But not in my name! Never in my name!
Thank you a million times over for treating Lady and the other girls with so much love and respect and wanting them to heal. Thank you for making your dream a reality and thank you for making my dream a reality, too. ESB speaks to the world and, hopefully, it is listening.
Shirley Taylor says
July 15, 2020 at 4:23 am
What a different girl she is now to the first time I saw a video of her that made me cry. In her small enclosure and swaying. Does she ever go to thump out with her trunk now or sway? I hope one day she will get closer to the other girls but as long as she keeps as happy as she looks right now that’s what is important. Scott Kat what a wonderful couple you are and you must have a team of dedicated people behind the scenes. Love your updates thankyou so much xx
- REPLY
  Kat Blais says
  July 15, 2020 at 8:07 pm
  Lady will still sway, sometimes it’s related to discomfort. If she is having a ‘bad’ day, she will begin to sway. But it is not normal for her anymore and if we see the behavior we try to figure out why and how to adjust. She will still show displeasure every now and again by hitting the bars, maybe once every two months or so- if I had to guess. It’s definitely not something she does as a regular form of communication anymore. At this point, it seems to be when she is a little overwhelmed- if people are doing things on both sides of her, or there are strange voices around that make her uncomfortable. We saw it with Maia, that a response like that becomes a little ingrained, and when an elephant is in a new or different situation, they will sometimes still respond that way. At least for a little while. But she’s mostly a perfect princess. 😉
Paula says
July 15, 2020 at 7:30 am
Criaturas venerables…
Ellas son tan inteligentes! Ellas generan pura admiración y respeto, animales maravillosos y místicos… ¿Quién estará ahí dentro de ese enorme cuerpo ?
Es hermoso saber como ellas interactúan voluntariamente con sus cuidadores, gracias a la confianza que ustedes han sabido generar en ellas, es muy conmovedor ❤
Barb says
July 15, 2020 at 10:50 am
Liniment usually has a unique odor so Lady must have thought I have to endure this for my treats! Oh these tiny-brained humans ask a lot ??❤️
Carol Anderson says
July 15, 2020 at 1:21 pm
Just goes to show what “thinking” animals they are.

How To Help

Adopt an Elephant

Donate Today

GSE Merchandise

Elephant Wishlists

Blog