As I was dropping peanuts
Along the path one day,
I noticed that an elephant
Had turned to come my way.

He came into my yard
And followed me inside;
That’s when I found that elephants
Are kind of hard to hide.

Momma hit the ceiling,
I thought that she would croak,
But Dad just smiled and said,
“I hope that thing’s house broke!”

Dad’s Cool is not always the case, sometimes it’s Mom who’s cool. Our family’s last move, while still in the Air Force, was to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We bought a new house that wasn’t quite completed, in a neighborhood of vacant lots and houses under construction. I visited the house several times to observe the carpenters at work and noticed a large mongrel hanging around, with whom they were sharing their lunch scraps.

After they had finished their work and gone on to some other job location, I had the task of running the dog off (which was not easy). We moved in a week later and my oldest son, Ron, set out to explore the neighborhood. Guess who followed him home.

With Mom’s help in persuading me, Prince became a part of the family. He lived in our large fenced in back yard and took great delight in tromping through my newly started garden and flowerbeds. An elephant couldn’t have been more efficient at plant destruction. I don’t think that I would have been so quick to give in to an elephant though.