8-year-old Amber Mason was saved by a 4-year-old elephant during the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Just as the wave struck, the elephant took Amber on its back and ran for higher ground. As the wave crashed around them, the elephant even turned its back to the water, creating a protective wall from the impact. "If she had been on the beach on her own or with us on the beach, she would never have lived," Amber's mother recalled. "The elephant took the pounding of the wave."