I needed a challenge, and I found it! Stepping away from my usual livestock and North American wildlife, I dove into something completely new: an elephant. My usual subjects share a lot of similarities—basic leg shapes, familiar anatomy, and recognizable features like udders and lips. But an elephant? Now that was an adventure. As I worked on this little felted pachyderm, I found myself repeatedly looking up elephant facts throughout the day.

Being a farm gal, my thoughts wandered to the baby elephant nursing. When calves or lambs have trouble nursing, we often need to guide them to the udder and coax them into drinking. It can be tricky; newborns sometimes need a lot of encouragement, and if their mothers aren’t cooperating, things get interesting. But can you imagine doing that with a baby elephant? First, you’d have to wrangle that playful trunk out of the way—and then, if you’re used to farm animals, you’d be looking in the wrong place entirely! Unlike most livestock, a baby elephant nurses from the front, near the mother’s chest, not the rear.