{"id":537,"date":"2026-05-01T13:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/?post_type=kazka&p=537"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:33:28","slug":"slonyk-i-ioho-khobot","status":"publish","type":"kazka","link":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/kazka\/slonyk-i-ioho-khobot\/","title":{"rendered":"The elephant and its trunk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u23f1 ~5 min reading<\/p>\n\n\n

In a green, green corner of the jungle, where the vines hung from the trees like long ribbons and the sun shone through the leaves in warm spots, there lived a little elephant named Lopata. He was still very small - only a little taller than a large barrel, with soft gray cheeks and round legs like four little bedside tables.<\/p>\n\n

But Lopata's trunk was big. Very big. It seemed like it was too big for such a tiny elephant. He was flopping from side to side, getting tangled in the grass, and every now and then he would get caught on a twig, a pebble, or his own leg.<\/p>\n\n

"Oh!" sighed Shovel every time he turned over the bowl of water. "I spilled it all again.".<\/p>\n\n

The mother elephant approached quietly, wrapped her large trunk around him, and gently stroked his back.<\/p>\n\n

"Nothing, son. Trunks grow with elephants. Give him time.".<\/p>\n\n

But Lopata doubted. The other elephants had already learned to catch the yellow fruits of the mango tree, to collect water from the river, and even to splash it on their backs to cool themselves in the heat. But Lopata just beat everything around him.<\/p>\n\n

"I'm an unfortunate elephant," he lamented quietly, looking at his reflection in the water of the pond. "Everything is not right with me.".<\/p>\n\n

One morning a storm broke out in the jungle. The wind shook the branches, the rain poured down like a wall, the leaves flew off like green butterflies. All the animals hid - the monkeys in their holes, the parrots under the broad leaves, the elephants under the big trees.<\/p>\n\n

When the storm died down and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds again, a mournful sound echoed across the clearing:<\/p>\n\n

\u2014 Meow-meow-meow-meow!<\/p>\n\n

All the animals listened. It was the voice of a little kitten. It was crying somewhere high up.<\/p>\n\n

"Look!" shouted the monkey, pointing his finger upwards. "There it is!"<\/p>\n\n

At the top of a young tree, swinging on a thin branch, sat a wet, frightened kitten. Its tail was shaking. Its eyes were big, big, full of tears.<\/p>\n\n

Below, the mother cat was running around. She jumped up, scratching the bark with her paws, but the tree was thin and slippery from the rain - she fell again and again.<\/p>\n\n

"Help!" the cat screamed. "My baby!"<\/p>\n\n

The animals consulted. The old elephant, the tallest and most dignified, raised his trunk. He stretched upward, reached as far as he could, but he could not reach it. The tree, thin though it was, was too high for his height from where he was standing.<\/p>\n\n

The second elephant tried - and also couldn't reach it.<\/p>\n\n

The third one even stood on its hind legs and almost fell over, but didn't touch the kitten.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\u0421\u043b\u043e\u043d\u0438\u043a<\/figure>\n\n\n

The cat was crying.<\/p>\n\n

And then all the animals turned their heads to Lopata. He stood aside, small, quiet, and looked at his long trunk, which was dangling in the grass.<\/p>\n\n

"A shovel," said the mother elephant softly. "You try it.".<\/p>\n\n

"Me?" the elephant recoiled. "But I'm too small. I'll just break the tree and the kitten will fall.".<\/p>\n\n

"You are small, but the tree is not big," said the old elephant wisely. "And your trunk is flexible and careful. Try it, Shovel.".<\/p>\n\n

The elephant took a small step forward. Then another. His heart pounded as if a hot seed were jumping inside him. He went to the tree, stood under it, and slowly, very slowly, raised his long trunk.<\/p>\n\n

The trunk swayed like a green stalk. Shovel pulled it out to the very end. And lo and behold, the tip of the trunk touched the kitten's wet fur.<\/p>\n\n

"Quietly, quietly," whispered the elephant. "I'm careful.".<\/p>\n\n

The trunk wrapped itself around the kitten, tenderly, like a native hand. The shovel held its breath. And lowered its trunk \u2014 slowly, smoothly, just as its mother lowered it when she wanted to kiss it.<\/p>\n\n

The kitten lay down gently on the grass right next to the mother cat. She wrapped her paws around her baby, licked its nose, and cried with joy.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThank you, little elephant,\u201d she whispered. \u201cThank you.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

The animals clapped their hands, their wings, their tails on the ground. The monkeys jumped for joy. The parrots shouted: "Well done, Lopata! Well done!"\u00ab<\/p>\n\n

And Lopata stood and looked at his trunk as if he were seeing it for the first time. And suddenly he realized: this trunk is not superfluous. And not unsuccessful. He was simply waiting for his moment. He was waiting for Lopata to grow up to the point where he could truly love it.<\/p>\n\n

In the evening, when the first stars lit up in the jungle, Lopata lay next to his mother. She gently stroked him behind the ear.<\/p>\n\n

"You see, son," she said, "every trait we are given is for something. It's just that sometimes we don't know what it is for until the time comes.".<\/p>\n\n

The shovel smiled in his sleep. And his trunk - the same big, clumsy trunk that had made him cry earlier - lay next to him, gently wrapped around the little paw of a kitten that had come to spend the night with its mother cat in the elephant family. And it seemed that this trunk was not at all big and unnecessary - exactly the kind that was needed to hug someone small and warm.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n

\u2728 Every trait we are given is an instrument of love waiting for its moment \u2728<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The little elephant, Lopat, was ashamed of his big trunk - it got into everything. But one day, trouble happened in the jungle, and it was his trunk that helped to make a real miracle happen.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":535,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":"","footnotes":""},"kategoriya":[11],"vik":[20],"zhanr":[28,23,25],"class_list":["post-537","kazka","type-kazka","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategoriya-kazky-pro-tvaryn","vik-vik-5-plus","zhanr-28","zhanr-23","zhanr-25"],"acf":{"emoji":"\ud83d\udc08","moral":"\u041a\u043e\u0436\u043d\u0430 \u0440\u0438\u0441\u0430, \u044f\u043a\u0443 \u043d\u0430\u043c \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0430\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0430\u043d\u043e, \u2014 \u0456\u043d\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0443\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0442 \u043b\u044e\u0431\u043e\u0432\u0456, \u0449\u043e \u0447\u0435\u043a\u0430\u0454 \u0441\u0432\u043e\u0433\u043e \u043c\u043e\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0443","image_1_prompt":"children book illustration, soft watercolor, cute, baby elephant gently carrying lost kitten with trunk","image_2_url":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/slonyk-i-ioho-khobot-2.jpg","image_2_prompt":"children book illustration, soft watercolor, small baby elephant looking sadly at his own long trunk by a jungle pond, overturned water bowl, soft morning light"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kazka"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka\/537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1429,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka\/537\/revisions\/1429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategoriya","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategoriya?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"vik","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vik?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"zhanr","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/zhanr?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}