Bjorn wrote:
(much snipped)

> Strike, another priceless tale, which struck a particularly soft spot! I
> faced a very similar dilemma myself, 15 years ago in Bangkok. Elephants are
> my favourite animals,

And (at least one of) mine.

When we first went "upcountry" to Badulla, when I would have been
about eight, with little to no English, in what was then called
Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, I noticed this full grown elephant in the
adjacent "garden" securely chained to a couple of trees and generally
caterwauling and making a nuisance of hisself ... I'll leave further
descriptive elements severely alone in the interests of not horrifying
this family membership.

I asked my parents what was going on, and received soothing noises,
until I realised and said :"oh, he's on must?" Which is the equivalent
of "on heat" in the doggy world, except there it's reserved for
females. Not so with elephants.

To their (my parents) shame, they made the very same mistake with dogs
just shortly after in my life when I realised that they were trying to
sweep that one under the carpet as well. :-7

The world was a lot more innocent then.

I'm entirely unsure whether that's a good, or bad, thing. I suspect I
lean towards the innocent.

Cheers,

Christian