More information for the pachydermally inclined can be found at EleSoc which, it must be said, is the best place to look.

Czechoslovakian Mountain Elephants have not yet received the attention they deserve from the pachydermologists. This is partly to do with the fact that the breed is extraordinarily rare, and the members so far documented were all found grazing peacefully in a shoebox on the highest shelf. They are not, therefore, the kind of everyday elephant which lends itself to scientific study. However I feel sure that the situation will change for the better in the fullness of time.

Sheila, as pictured none too successfully above and in the Wagstaffe Transcendental Kitchen article, is mainly blue, although lower down she is black. This is to help her to blend in with the shoebox in which she lives.

I first met Sheila when I was looking for an old video to record the X-files over. I was searching through a box of photos, and as I put it back on the shelf I saw the shoebox which had been hiding behind it. Intrigued, I took down the shoebox and opened the lid.

Initially I couldn't see much of the interior but as my eyes got used to the gloom I began to make out their grey flanks. There were several of them nearby, and I reached out to knock on the window. Instantly the curtain was drawn back and an elephant eye stared inquisitively out at me.

"Hello. I'm Nat Wagstaffe. Could I come in?"

I couldn't help wondering why an elephant would choose to live in a forty-foot caravan in a shoebox enshrouded in permanent night, particularly a shoebox which lived behind a box of photos on the very highest shelf. Therefore I determined to ask her. But before I could step inside the door which she had kindly opened, a great trumpeting filled the air.

to be continued...