Tiny's Story

Subj: In - patients
4/9/2003
From: www.elephant.tnet.co.th
To: JodysJungle
Lampang/Wed 9th April, 2003
At present we have eleven elephants here, five are our permanent residents. The six elephants include a mother and her new born--Pung Paitoon and Plai Tini [for Tiny], Pung Toki with abcess, Pung Jokia [expecting the baby], Pung Champen and Manguaylow [landmine victims]. Paitoon gave birth to an underweight baby of only 30 kg. We quickly went to see her and the baby. She could not nurse the baby because he was only 70 cm tall and could not reach his mother's breasts to feed himself. He needed another 20 cm to reach his mother. So we rush them here and fed TINI, the baby with soya milk and introduced him to his mother, standing on the sack of hay. Now he is four-week-old and happily feeding himself from his mother's milk.
Soraida Salwala
Friends of the Asian Elephant

Tiny and Mother Paitoon

July 7, 2004
TINY
Today around three p.m., a sick baby (aged a year and five months old) arrived at FAE's Elephant Hospital. The first diagnosis was haemoragic. We were told that the baby's name was DUI-DUI. We tried our best to save him but his temperature dropped and he was gone within an hour. It was one of the saddest things that happened. The baby was the one whom we saved last year when he was only a day old. His mother is Paitoon. Hope you remember him, I named him TINY because he weighed only 30 kilogrammes. When his owner wanted to take him back , I opposed. Even though TINY became a big baby but he was only six months old. The owner sold him to a new man and they changed his name. He had grown up so much but we recognized him.

The last two photos were in black and white taken on his arrival with a new identity.

Poor Tiny!
We shall bury him tomorrow and plant a tree on his grave. The tree would grow big to give shade for other elephants, Bigger than TINY himself and I am sure he will be happy to be always remembered as the branches of the tree reach out to the sky.
He was once a joy to us all.
My grief!
Soraida Salwala
Friends of the Asian Elephant

~