PASSIONS

We all know gin , men and travel are some of my passions. But first and foremost my love for the earth and animals has also been a hot button topic and a love passion since childhood. It never stops amazing me how we treat this planet, it's environment and the animals who share it. It's probably at an all time high for many animals and species becoming extinct, as we keep tearing up more land because we are way over populated. It's also why I get angry when people feel the need to consume odd  foods and delicacies. We already have enough food to eat without having to consume every fucking thing that moves. But thats another very heated story with me. This passion has to do with my love for elephants and giraffes. I've always been enthralled with them both, and both are grossly facing extinction due to snaring, being hunted, getting caught in traps meant for other smaller animals and the razing of land. It's quite sad. When Daddy Warbuck's and I traveled to Newport once, his friend came with us. Somehow it came up about me wanting to help the creatures. He knew someone who put me in touch with  and got me involved in a elephant sanctuary. And I've been in love ever since. It's the next best thing to being there I suppose.

The place is in Kenya and called the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Founded in 1977 by Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick DBE, in memory of her late husband, famous naturalist and founding Warden of Tsavo East National Park, David Leslie William Sheldrick MBE. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust claims a rich and deeply rooted family history in wildlife and conservation. For over 25 years Kenya-born Daphne Sheldrick lived and worked alongside David, during which time they raised and successfully rehabilitated many wild species. Daphne Sheldrick’s involvement with wildlife spanned a lifetime, and she was a recognized international authority on the rearing of wild creatures and was the first person to perfect the milk formula and husbandry needed to successfully raise infant milk-dependent Elephants and Rhinos. Since the death of her husband, Daphne, and her family, lived and worked in the Nairobi National Park where they built The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and its pioneering Orphans’ Project into the global force for wildlife conservation that is today. Daphne's daughter Angela worked alongside her mother running the Trust for twenty years, and since Daphne’s passing, sadly in 2018, it continues the mission with passion and vigor ably supported by her husband Robert Carr-Hartley, their two sons Taru and Roan and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust team.

Daphne Sheldrick died of cancer aged 83.⁣ ⁣ She helped save the lives of more than 230 elephants - many of which had lost their mothers to poachers or drought - by developing a milk formula and successfully rearing them.⁣ ⁣ Her Kenyan charity is world-renowned for its care of orphaned elephants.⁣ ⁣ Dame Daphne "lived alongside elephants and learned to read their hearts.In some ways she is a  hero on so many levels. It has been two years since her passing and she is still missed so very much. After following them and new letters and video with my account were the ones that taught me about Conservation and what the word really meant. And her legacy lives on. 

As the human population expands, pushing wildlife to the very brink of extinction and wild habitats to the edge of destruction, the Sheldrick Trust is determined to reverse the effects of the past and prevent the effects of the present, in the hope for a better future for both wildlife and mankind.The long term goal of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is to secure safe havens for wildlife, through the effective management and protection of key ecosystems and wilderness areas in Kenya.

Baby elephants often sleep under their mother's care, but with no mother the nursery caretakers often sleep next to them to give them comfort.

Elephant are quite remarkable creatures and highly social animals. For one, they really do have very long memories. When the babies are born, it's important for them to use their trunks quickly as it helps them forge bonds with others and as many elephants as possible. Through the touch and smelling of others and the bond has taken, they can go years and years without seeing each other, but when the day comes down the road they will instantly remember each other. And humans as well they bond with A matriarch of a herd will usually teach young ones how to behave with other elephants, and are also responsible for remembering where the best places are to shelter and find food and water.

I makes me very happy to know other liked minded people are out there and care for these and other animals. One day, I hope to be able to go in person to see the wildlife preserve and meet the elephant I have adopted named Malima, a four year old female. 

And here is a small filmed video they sent me of a gather of the elephants.

With my adoption I get email updates on her and the going- ons at the preserve, adoption certificate, a monthly watercolor painted by the daughter Angela and videos and online content. I would also like to give more money and adopt a giraffe, but will hold off till I starting working again. Mistress Maddie's #1 Fan and I have on our bucket list to go to Nairobi to go to a giraffe sanctuary to stay for two weeks, which I also wait to do one day. The trip is a all inclusive trip which is nice... and all interactive, as the giraffes roam free on the planation preserve ...but that will be pushed back now depending on travel with the virus, if it's still around next summer. We shall wait and see.  If my mother was passed on already, god forbid, and me not working currently, I would in a heartbeat sell or giving everything I have to this place and up and leave to go work with this organization in a minute. Ever since I first rode an elephant it was love at first sight...and I often just get tears of happy and sadness over these creatures. And then I came across this guy some time go on a recommendation,  for he also has a love for elephants. You watch and tell me these creatures are great and have feelings and should be treasured.

If anyone has a love for elephants and others animals, wants to know more about this place or possibly adopt or donate to them in the future, here is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust site. If you ever do donate to a wildlife organization do your online research first and make sure they actually do good work, humanely, treat the animals well,  and are a legitimate organization too.