At just six months of age, Themba the elephant suffered a terrible loss, his mother fell off a cliff while moving with their herd through the South African nature reserve where they lived.
With this being a critical time for bonding between mother and son, the veterinarians hoped that one of the other females would adopt him, sadly though none did.
Enter Albert the sheep!
It took a lot of patience with the first few introductions, as it turns out, sheep have been used as surrogate mothers for a variety of orphaned animals.
After three days of wary gestures and tentative touching the pair finally accepted each other, and the stressful beginning of their relationship well worth it.
They were inseparable, they would nap together, play together, Themba would rest his trunk on Albert's wooly back and they explored their surroundings.
The plan was that Themba would be reintroduced back to his family, however he became gravely ill when he was two and a half, despite efforts to heal him, sadly they lost him.
Albert though continued to forge new interspecies friendships with zebra foals and wildebeests.
Love is the language of the Universe, unconditional love, the strongest love of all................
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