Steve Hartman, a journalist for CBS News, presented you with Tarra, an 8,700-pound Asian elephant, and Bella, a puppy.

Over a dozen stray canines, including Bella, have made their home at the Hohenwald, Tennessee, elephant refuge. Most people are opposed to working with elephants, and vice versa. However, not this peculiar duo.

Bella and Tarra have been close for years, but until Bella’s spinal cord injury, no one truly understood how close they were.

Bella was unable to move her tail or her legs. For three weeks, the dog lay immobile in the shelter’s office.

As a result, Tarra, the elephant, stayed on guard for three weeks. Tarra had 2,700 acres to wander freely, so she only waited for Bella by standing in a corner next to a fence outside the sanctuary office.

The two animals, “Tarra and Bella, the elephant and the dog who became best friends,” signed a book deal after millions of people saw their story on television and the internet.

Sanctuary workers discovered Bella’s body last week. It appeared that coyotes had assaulted her.

Steve Smith, the preserve’s director of elephant husbandry, thinks Tarra may have carried Bella a mile or more on her way home.

There is no denying Tarra’s devoted nature, regardless of whether things actually transpired that way. The CEO of the sanctuary, Rob Atkinson, reported that other elephants were behaving extra well toward Tarra, including giving her a share of their food.