Girl Meets Elephant; A Love Story

Dec 11th 2009

Katherine Connor used to be a busy career girl in London until an impromptu vacation to Thailand inspired her to give it all up and live in the Thai jungle with the elephants. Her journey over the past seven years has led to love, loss, a marriage, two kids and several elephants.

London's Daily Mail reports that Connor caught the elephant bug at age 21 while she was at a conservation camp in Northern Thailand and came face to face with baby elephant Boon Lot.

"As the baby elephant began to tug at my shoelaces, tears rolled down my cheeks. I had never even met an elephant before - but suddenly, every instinct in my body was telling me I had to care for this one," Connor says in a first person account of her story in the Daily Mail. "I had never experienced love at first sight - until now. I'm not sure what the other tourists thought of me as I stood there weeping, but I didn't care. I loved the elephant's little grey body covered in soft downy hair, and his twinkling eyes. I loved the powerful mother who stood watchful by his side."

Connor begged the owner of the sanctuary to allow her to stay and work for a few weeks as an unpaid volunteer.