Donkeys have needs, too.

Rush Limbaugh gives frequent updates on Evansville firm offering an artificial foot to Motola the elephant.

At Riecken's Orthotic Laboratory in Evansville, a dozen and a half employees toil in the relatively low-key business of orthotics and partial foot prostheses.

Low-key it was until Rush Limbaugh learned of an elephant named Motola. The 38-year-old logging elephant stepped on a land mine in Thailand last August and lost her left front foot. Motola's plight captured the attention of the conservative talk-show host, who has provided listeners with regular updates on the elephant's progress.

The incident also came up in owner Carl Riecken's household. "My wife saw an article about the elephant and she said 'you ought to help that elephant,'" recalls Riecken. Though his business is usually limited to the care of human feet, Riecken accepted the challenge and offered to build a prosthesis to replace Motola's foot, which the elephant's doctors had to amputate.

The involvement of an American company seemed to increase Limbaugh's interest in the elephant's tale. And the increased media attention sparked additional help. "UPS has volunteered their services to take things back and forth to Thailand for us," Riecken says. And another Evansville business, the Coach Works, has offered to fashion a metal band that will help hold a leather cover in place protecting the elephant prosthesis that Riecken's company creates.

Riecken says the new elephant foot will be fashioned out of an elastic polymer and if all goes well will be held in place by suction (nylon straps will be available as backups in case suction doesn't hold). Riecken hopes to dye the leather cover gray to match elephant flesh. The sole of this elephant shoe will be made of tractor tread.

Limbaugh declined to comment on what about this saga has so piqued his interest, but his on-air mentions of Riecken's company continue recent attention the talk-show host has shown southern Indiana. He was in Sellersburg in September competing in a pro-am golf tournament before the Papa John's Wolf Challenge at the Covered Bridge Golf Course owned by his buddy, Hoosier golf great Fuzzy Zoeller.

Limbaugh was at the course for the same event a year earlier, making his first-ever pro-am appearance since taking up golf. Appropriately enough for the conservative icon, his first tee shot landed in the right rough. "I have a tendency," he quipped, "to hit things to the right."