Set (deity) or a fennec fox. The animal has a curved snout, long rectangular ears, a thin forked tail and canine body, with sprouted fur tufts in an inverted arrow shape; sometimes, Set is depicted as a human with the distinctive head. Some early Egyptologists proposed that it was a stylised representation of the giraffe, owing to the large flat-topped "horns" which correspond to a giraffe's ossicones. The Egyptians themselves, however, made a distinction between the giraffe and the Set animal. During the Late Period, Set is depicted as a donkey or as having a donkey's head. The earliest representations of what
Sophie the Giraffe Sophie the Giraffe Sophie the Giraffe is a teether – a toy for teething infants to chew on – in the form of a hevea rubber giraffe. The toy has been made in France (as "Sophie la Girafe") since 1961, first in Asnières-sur-Oise, near Paris, by Delacoste, then from 1991 by Vulli, based in Rumilly in the French Alps. Its name refers to its launch on 25 May 1961, the feast day of Saint Madeline Sophie Barat. It has achieved national icon status in France, according to "Slate", with more sold each year (816,000 in 2010) than babies are born