"Let Sleeping Dog Li...Oh Hell No...."

September 30, 2013 6:17 AM

Baby elephant wants to play with a sleeping dog and is very persistent about trying to wake it up. [slyt | cute]
posted by quin (35 comments total)

I can understand the dog sleeping through being manhandled...errr...elephanttrunkled, because aside from trying to pick him up by his forepaws, baby elephant was actually very gentle. But how was he sleeping through that infernal rooster crowing!?
posted by mittens at 6:25 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

cutest game of 'i'm not touching you, i'm not touching yooouuu!' ever
posted by fuzzypantalones at 6:25 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's less an elephant trying to wake up a dog and more an elephant bothering a dog while it does the canine equivalent of pulling a pillow over its head and trying to get back to sleep.
posted by NoraReed at 6:27 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

"Hey Alistair, check this out, I learned to do a kick-ass impression of a rooster, it's marvelous. Hey, Alistair. Look at my new mascara. Alistair. Alistair I bought a wind chime. Alistair that little bird is here again, I don't know what it wants. Here, I'll do the rooster. Alistair."
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:28 AM on September 30, 2013 [12 favorites]

tired dog is tired
posted by starman at 6:49 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

I thought to myself "boy that elephant sure is nosy" and then laughed for about 10 minutes.
posted by elizardbits at 6:57 AM on September 30, 2013 [36 favorites]

i am the dog and the elephant is the world.
posted by The Whelk at 7:07 AM on September 30, 2013 [18 favorites]

I am annoyed for the dog. Not so much by the elephant, but by the guy with the blade of grass.
posted by DarkForest at 7:12 AM on September 30, 2013 [19 favorites]

I didn't know that elephants had a snoutfinger for delicate prodding.
posted by scruss at 7:12 AM on September 30, 2013 [4 favorites]

Yeah, that jerkface with the grass needs a paddlin'.
posted by elizardbits at 7:23 AM on September 30, 2013 [3 favorites]

"Snoutfinger General" is my new prog rock band.

Also holy crap. Elephants are people.
posted by Mooseli at 7:24 AM on September 30, 2013 [6 favorites]

Where is this place where you can have a pet baby elephant, dog, and rooster for 8 year old me would like to move there and never come back?
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:31 AM on September 30, 2013 [14 favorites]

The dog is so tired he can't even move out of trunk range. : (
posted by orme at 7:37 AM on September 30, 2013

Full disclosure: I have a dog who, when he sleeps very deeply, gets the fur on his paws tickled until his little legs spasm. Apart from being a very clear identifier as to why I am a terrible person, it's instructive about my dog's trust for me. He knows that no matter how much I irritate him, he's totally safe and doesn't rouse because as aggravating as I'm being, it's still love.

This struck me as the exact same thing, right down to where the snoutfinger was poking the toes.

This is a dog that deals with this crap every day, and it is so not novel, it's not even worth half waking up for.

That this is a thing somewhere in the world, makes me no end of happy; somewhere out there, is a sleepy dog, in the dirt, patiently waiting for the stupid elephant to go find something else to do, preferably to the rooster, so that he can go back to sleep for a few hours.

Awesome.
posted by quin at 7:48 AM on September 30, 2013 [36 favorites]

My favorite part is when the elephant lifts up the dog's front legs.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:29 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

All this time I thought I wanted to get a second dog to keep my dog company. Turns out what I actually want is an elephant. Huh.
posted by phunniemee at 8:49 AM on September 30, 2013 [11 favorites]

What a dork!

Who here among us would spend our time tickling a dog with a blade of grass when we could be skritching an elephant and snorgling?

I thought so.

whoz a cute widdle 'lphant? YOU iz! wuzza wuzza woo
posted by BlueHorse at 8:54 AM on September 30, 2013 [7 favorites]

Genetically engineered baby elephants, that stayed babies would be a multi billion dollar industry.

Get on it science.
posted by DigDoug at 8:57 AM on September 30, 2013 [4 favorites]

He's playing dead; first thing you learn in safari survival school.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:05 AM on September 30, 2013

quin writes: "...snoutfinger..."

I now have a really fucked up version of a Neil Young song in my head.
"Shelter me from the rooster and snoutfinger..."

(alternately, "Snout finger!...wah WAHHH wah")

oh god I'm so tired
posted by notsnot at 9:06 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: a snoutfinger for delicate prodding.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 9:50 AM on September 30, 2013 [7 favorites]

It's a dog sleep elephant world and he's just not interested in waking up.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 10:23 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Genetically engineered baby elephants, that stayed babies would be a multi billion dollar industry.

Prehistoric geese used to be the size of light aircraft. Moden geese have a genetic memory of these times and are full of rage at their diminutive wingspan. That, or they are just evil.

Now imagine a 200 kg (baby sized) elephant saturated with resentment towards the humans who cursed it to live out a life as the Chihuahua of the pachyderms. I love elephants (a lot) but such an animal would be a menace.

Further, this idea has already been explored with comic and tragic outcomes. Witness Jeremy the dwarf mammoth.

[Still kinda want one]
posted by flyingfox at 11:09 AM on September 30, 2013 [5 favorites]

The baby giraffes that Russian guy has in that commercial, though, I will buy one right away.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 12:03 PM on September 30, 2013 [5 favorites]

That poor dog.

That poor, poor dog.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought of mock-slapping the grass-prodder's hand away, though.
posted by seyirci at 12:41 PM on September 30, 2013

Something tells me that dog has had more than its share of practice at ignoring the annoying things trying to annoy it while it's just trying to get some sleep.
posted by ook at 12:48 PM on September 30, 2013

Dog. Dog. Dog... Hey Dog!

What? I'm trying to sleep.

I wanna play. Let's play. Can we play now?

No, I'm sleeping.

But I wanna play. Come on, let's play. What game should we play?

You really, want to play? Then let's play fetch.

Yes! I love that game. Let's play fetch.

Fine, fetch me that rooster.
posted by flyingfox at 1:05 PM on September 30, 2013 [6 favorites]

I recall a TV advert from years ago. There's a circus parade going down a street, with elephants. A young boy teases the baby elephant with a toffee, offering it to the animal and then withdrawing it, making a teasing nah-nah sound. Cue sad looking elphant. Next scene, we're 30-ish years in the future, boy is much older and so is elephant. The parade is going on again, only this time, the elephant whacks the guy in the face with his trunk and makes the same noise back to the now grown man.

That's what I wanted the elephant to do to the person teasing the dog with the grass.
posted by Solomon at 1:22 PM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

The dog had it coming, it barked all night an no one got any sleep. Payback.
posted by boilermonster at 2:23 PM on September 30, 2013

I love being tickled by grass by a friend as I doze outdoors. Almost as much as being nuzzled by their trunk. I don't know why all you human-haters are going on about the pachyderm being the only affectionate one.
posted by ambrosen at 3:07 PM on September 30, 2013

flyingfox: "Moden geese have a genetic memory of these times and are full of rage at their diminutive wingspan. That, or they are just evil."

There is definitely an inverse relationship between size and rage.

That said: geese are assholes.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 4:20 PM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

(alternately, "Snout finger!...wah WAHHH wah")

Yes
posted by DLWM at 5:26 PM on September 30, 2013

I love being tickled by grass by a friend as I doze outdoors. Almost as much as being nuzzled by their trunk. I don't know why all you human-haters are going on about the pachyderm being the only affectionate one.

Is this some kind of... pro-human astroturfing? You're emulating the dog to make humans look better? What's your angle here?
posted by valrus at 10:53 PM on September 30, 2013

Problem is, elephant trunks are nasty. I led an elephant, elephant-style (by the trunk) and I could hardly wait to get to a place to wash my hand. The elephant was just fine, and well behaved, and I held no resentment. Just, gross. And it was an African elephant. I checked the photos and it has the 2 "trunk-fingers". (Before, I only guessed about that based on ear size).

I didn't ride the elephant, there seemed no point in that. It was fun to be able to touch them.
posted by Goofyy at 4:07 AM on October 1, 2013

Is this some kind of... pro-human astroturfing?

Busted!

I was thinking people were being a little unfair to the filmmaker, that's all.
posted by ambrosen at 9:03 AM on October 7, 2013