Raising a baby

I am always impressed at people who raise children well. All the time and attention needed to nurture, feed, care for physically and mentally and emotionally. The happy, confident child, teenager, young adult is usually the product of careful parents. Children with ‘problems’ may receive as much care and time but it may be less visible as they may well be so much better off than they would be without that care, but then some of them just seem ‘normal’ which may in itself be a major achievement for them and their parents.

How much harder is it to raise a baby of another species?

Personally I have only hand raised one kitten. Young birds we rescued as children just never made it. But I have delivered a few ‘found’ baby birds to a few places where devoted people hand raise and release them.

Today I was led to a very sweet story of a woman who (with help) is raising a baby elephant. Now that is SOME BABY!

We think of elephants as just BIG. But they have very complex social and emotional lives.  So many baby elephants, rescued after poachers have killed their mothers just die. They won’t eat, pine away and die. Very hard for those trying to raise them.

Today’s story has a chance for a happier outcome. This is a tiny baby, being hand raised.

The surrogate mum is so aware of the baby’s emotional needs, she even sleeps with it.

My eyes leaked a bit over it.

To read the larger story go here

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