The breakfast included a rare, behind-the-scenes experience where a few of us helped with morning elephant chores, such as giving them a bath by scrubbing them with brushes and watching them play with their bath toys.

The endangered Asian elephants were moved to the National Zoo to improve their lives by reconnecting them with a larger herd in a year-round environment that rarely, if ever, sees snow. I'm not sure how the elephants came to be in our zoo, or any zoo for that matter. Were they born in captivity? Or were they captured and sold into zoos for our entertainment? Or perhaps they were injured or unable to care for themselves in the wild and were rescued? My naive and hopeful heart hopes it was to help, not to entertain.

I'm no elephantologist, but having been up close and personal with these amazing animals, if just for one meal, I can say with absolute certainty that a soul lives and burns brightly behind those eyes. I'm glad their life was made a little better, and they got to reconnect with their long-lost pack.