Jenny and Shirley first met each other in 1976 at the Carson and Barnes Circus winter quarters in Oklahoma. Jenny was a youngster, newly imported from Asia. Shirley was recovering from a broken leg she sustained from an elephant attack many months prior.
Circuses are known to keep elephants chained side-by-side according to size, largest to smallest. Since Shirley was unstable, having only three good legs, she was chained at the far end of the picket line away from the big elephants and right next to Jenny.
Their time together was short-lived, only a couple of months. In early spring of 1977, Jenny was sent out on the road to perform with the circus and Shirley was sold to the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo in Monroe, LA.
Twenty-three years passed. The next time they saw each other was when Jenny stepped inside her barn at The Elephant Sanctuary on July 6, 1999.
