The most amazing thing ever

You don't really expect an animal to be self aware. I suspect my dog doesn't really know he's a dog. When he looks in the mirror, he doesn't recognize himself. Instead, he barks at his own reflection for hours at a time because he thinks there's another dog in the room.

My cat, well, he doesn't even recognize ME and I feed the little monster.

That's what makes this video so strange. It's an elephant painting a picture of an elephant. And he did a better job than I did. I know this because I actually tried drawing a picture of an elephant after watching the clip and couldn't do half the job it did.

I've heard elepants were smart, but artistic? Who knew?

While watching the video here at work, people gathered around me and gasped in awe. Being cynics, several of my colleagues assured me it was a fake. One editor laughed at me and said it was clearly computer generated.

It looks real to me. And there are dozens of videos and Web sites dedicated to artistic elephants. You decide.

Here's what happens when you give a paintbrush to a dog. But like the old saying goes, it's not that he does it well, it's that he does it at all.