Helping the Three Legged Elephant

When you’re known as the one legged mom, certain expectations are thrust upon you. People assume you’ll be a pirate for Halloween (My prosthetist made himself a peg leg one year. I admit, I was jealous). People assume you’ll take in the stray three legged dogs or cats that show up on their doorsteps.

I don’t mind. My bionic foot is a good part of my identity and I’m secure in it. Today a good friend sent me this link, a story about an elephant with a prosthetic leg. I’m aware of the movie about the dolphin with the artificial tail. And I’ve seen many stories about horses and family pets that get some version of a prosthetic leg. But elephants were a new one for me.

In digging up a link for the story, surprise, surprise, I found another story of an elephant with a prosthetic leg. This one was an elephant who’d stepped on a land mine.

So, being your resident one legged GeekMom writer, I thought I’d share it with you. Amazingly, this elephant’s prosthetic leg looks like it’s designed a lot like mine. The main difference? I have a 5 thousand dollar high tech foot and he has a leather pad for a foot. But we both get around in the world just fine, thanks to some smart prosthetists and helpful technology.