In 2012, a funeral was being held in an animal sanctuary in Africa. A herd of elephants came from a distance, standing silently in front of Lawrence's statue, and several elephants even shed tears out of the corners of their eyes. Lawrence's wife, Caitlin, cried so hard that she said, "Rest in peace, they're coming to see you off." ”
What's even more amazing is that the 21 elephants didn't come here just once, they came to watch Lawrence every day for seven days after his funeral. Even for the next three years, on this day, the elephants would arrive on time for a moment of silence, just as people pay tribute to the death of their deceased relatives.
What is the touching story between this elephant and Lawrence?
Lawrence is an animal lover who lives in South Africa and has had a great interest in animals since he was a child, and his biggest hobby is to run into the wild whenever he can.
He enjoys working with all kinds of animals and getting up close and personal with them. Lawrence often saw the carcasses of some animals when he wandered through the wild, some of them were born, old, sick, and dead, but many of them were hunted.
Some people hunt animals for something of value on their bodies, such as elephant teeth, and they make them into luxury goods for profit.
After seeing this phenomenon, Lawrence went around and called on people to protect animals. He recommended that the relevant authorities legislate to protect elephants.
Once, an elephant accidentally intruded into human territory, just in time for Lawrence to meet, and he was about to walk up to guide the elephant away, but people took tools and began to attack the elephant frantically, no matter how much he dissuaded them, those people went their own way, and some even burned the elephant with fire.
Seeing tears in the elephant's eyes, Lawrence also cried sadly with it. From then on, Lawrence made a decision to establish an animal sanctuary.
Lawrence's move moved Caitlin, who is also an animal lover, and after the exchange, I learned that they had coincided, and Caitlin also planned to build a reserve. The same hobby brought the two closer and closer together, and eventually became a partner.
In 1991, the two married, then began to marry and sell their property, and then bought 5,000 acres of land from a South African chief, which they enclosed and a large animal sanctuary was built.
To build the reserve, the couple spent their savings, initially running out of money to build a house, and sleeping in tents at night.
But they don't feel bitter at all, because they are always communicating with the animals. They soon became good friends with elephants, giraffes, and zebras. Gradually, more and more animals came here, and they began to reproduce.
In 1999, staff at Kruger National Park in South Africa called Lawrence and asked him to help house a group of elephants.
It turned out that the growing population of a village near Kruger National Park had severely affected the habitat of elephants, who faced homelessness.
Lawrence did not hesitate and agreed, but how to transport the elephants to the reserve became a difficult problem in front of him.
Lawrence mobilized friends to buy an oversized fence from the Internet, then contacted the van to go to Kruger Park.
When he got there, he was immediately stunned by the scene, it turned out that because people had encroached on the elephants' territory, the elephants began to go to the village in search of food. The villagers then took out their weapons and began hunting the elephants, and the staff was in a hurry, and the scene was chaotic.
Lawrence shouted at the crowd: "Stop, stop me!" It was only after Lawrence's persuasion that the people laid down their arms and left the herd.
Lawrence walked towards the herd of elephants, and the staff on the side hurriedly stopped: "Come back quickly, this is dangerous, it will trample you into pieces." ”
Lawrence ignored it, walked straight to a female elephant, lowered his body, put his head next to the female elephant's head, and said softly: "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you, I'm your friend." ”
Strange to say, the mother elephant, who was still furious just now, magically calmed down, and as if it understood Lawrence's words, it followed Lawrence to the convoy.
When the other elephants saw the mother elephant's movements, they followed suit, and under the guidance of Lawrence, they went all the way to his animal sanctuary.
Along the way, Lawrence interacted with the elephants incessantly, and in order to gain their trust, he slept with them at night. He also gave the mother elephant a name, Nana.
Nana became more and more docile, and after returning to the animal sanctuary, Lawrence ate and lived with them, and gradually the elephants became good friends with him.
The following year, in an accident, 7 elephants rushed out of the reserve on a rainy night, and Lawrence was anxious to find them, fearing that they would be hunted, so he braved the heavy rain to run out to find them. Fortunately, I finally found them and brought them back.
Over the years, thanks to the efforts of Lawrence and his wife Caitlin, there have been more and more animals in the reserve, and they get along very harmoniously.
However, people have bad luck, and Lawrence has become ill due to long-term overwork. In 2012, at the age of 61, he suffered a heart attack at work and collapsed in an animal sanctuary. When Caitlin got the news, she rushed to the place where he fell, only to find a row of elephants standing around her, who were silently guarding him.
When the ambulance picked Lawrence away, the elephants followed the car for a long time, so far that they were reluctant to leave.
After Lawrence's death, Caitlin, at everyone's suggestion, decided to hold a funeral for him in front of the cabin where they lived in the reserve.
On the day of the funeral, 21 elephants walked for half an hour to the cabin, stood in a row, and let out a series of wails, which shocked and moved everyone present, and people mourned Lawrence with the elephants.
All things have spirits, and many times, animals may be more grateful than humans, people will be ungrateful, animals will not.
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